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Olympic Mathlete posted:Is North Dakota truly as boring as it looks from that map? My mom's family is from eastern ND, so I have crossed that state countless times. The answer is yes.
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Sep 14, 2017 03:52
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This was one hell of a road trip. 4200 km (2600 miles), 4 days. There is a lack of good photos due to the tight timeline, it didn't allow for many photo stops but we do have some great memories. Well, let's start at the beginning. Friday  Flew into Los Angeles friday night, the flight was killer and both of us were dead tired so instead of taking a detour and seeing the car that night, we went straight to the motel for the night. Shadiest motel I have ever stayed in, and that includes the 70's shag carpet horror motel on the way back from picking up the Baja's STI transmission. Inch and a quarter thick glass around the clerk, and while checking in a hooker came in looking for her customer. At the very least the room appeared clean so oh well, we'll tough it out. Next morning we're greeted to a cockroach in the sink. Welcome to L.A. Saturday In the morning we went to go see the car. It's in a much rougher shape than the photos would let you believe. The 'minor' issues are what I would consider fairly serious, albeit mostly cosmetic. Previous owner lived in the hills, and well, he sucked at judging angles and distances. Front bumper needs to be replaced, the headlamps are foggy, the badges front and rear need to be replaced, the rear bumper has minor scuffs and an odd scratch, and the rocker is pushed in a little and scraped up (although the undercoat appears to be intact, drat good on Porsche because it really holds up.) and the underbody plastics are due for replacement too. Mechanically the car is as good as the service records indicate, and the interior is in really nice shape. The rev report showed a good number of Rev range 1, and double digits in rev range 2, nothing in ranges 3+ The only issues on the interior is the passenger side seat release lever is missing, previous owner was an idiot and slammed the door on the seatbelt many times in the past, and the drivers floor mat is worn at the very top (how the gently caress? who knows)   During my time in LA I noticed a lot of cars, actually the vast majority of them, had some form of body damage. New, Old, Cheap, and Expensive, it didn't matter To the point where I swear they come off the dealer lots with some form of body damage.  We saw some pretty destroyed cars, or what's left of them, making their way down the highway, wish I would have snapped some pictures.  So, I guess what is 'minor' damage is relative  But I have succumbed to excitement, time pressure, and of course the sunken cost fallacy. I bought it anyway despite it's flaws and in my haste agreed to a price of $15,900 USD. Financial mistake?    Death Valley is HOT.  Roof up kind of hot. This boxster has the automatic climate control which is great at creating a nice cool environment to enjoy the breathtaking sights as we cruised through the valley.  The heat from the sun was killer, leaving the comfort of the car to even take a few quick pictures was surprisingly draining. I am not made for the heat.  And thus we had our first breakdown.The rear trunk release was not working correctly, and 2/3rds of our luggage was now trapped in the boot. I'm not sure if the heat contributed or if it was a coincidence, but in any case we can hear the electric motor actuating but the rear won't pop up. In typical german fashion, the rear lid can only be opened manually by removing the drivers rear wheel and splash guard and pulling on a manual release cable. And guess what, the previous owner neglected to include the factory bottle jack with the car. In any case, I did not have the tools to release it and with the imminent border crossing I needed to find a way. Crossing the border while having an unopenable trunk did not seem like a smart move. We left Death Valley and continued on our way towards Hoover Dam.  The main highway to Boulder from Las Vegas was supposedly closed according to google maps, the alternate route took longer and included passing through a national park. My first american national park. Holy poo poo do you guys pay through the nose for parks, for the whole trip we ended up spending $110 on park passes ($30 for the first one, threw out the receipt like a dummy, then $80 for the annual pass as we went through a few more parks) By the time we got to hoover dam, it was dark and we didn't see too much. Too bad, maybe next time.  Sunday   Utah is loving beautiful. Death Valley was definitely a site to see, but Utah has blown it out of the water.  We passed through Zion, beautiful scenery and a nice drive  The geological formations were unique and definitely a treat to see    But the crown jewel in the beauty that is Utah was highway 12.  Once we passed that corner... wow.  A truly awe inspiring view. Words cannot explain, and pictures barely grasp the vastness of this place.  The road wound around, dipped and rose, and I was driving on the peak of one of these mountains, with steep falls on either side and a narrow road to follow. I will never forget this drive. Monday  We got lucky today. On our way to Yellowstone we managed to find an open repair shop, the nice folks over at Teton Valley Auto Repair. As I figured that the border agencies would not accept "Well... it's broken" as an excuse for not popping the trunk I managed to get squezed in on what they said was their busiest day in a while  Day 3 and already in the shop. Not a good omen. Thankfully, they were able to help me relocated the manual pull cable to be accessible from the wheel well while the car was still on the ground. It looks like the pull cable for the electric motor has an exesive amount of slack so while the motor does pull, it doesn't pull far enough to free the latch. I will have to figure it out once I got home, but I now had access to the rest of my luggage and a method for opening the trunk. To celebrate, we had the best breakfast we've ever had in the town of Jackson. Here it is in all of it's artery clogging goodness  We continued on past the Tetons, and headed into Yellowstone  We stopped by Old Faithful geyser and watched an erruption  Popped by the grand prismatic spring and got stuck in terrible tourist traffic that ate up valuable time  But the sights were worth it, the uniqueness of these geysers and springs is something that you have to experience in person to truly appreciate.   On our way out way out of the park we of course saw bison  We passed many groups of tourists who stopped to see them on the way to beartooth pass but we couldn't stop, we had to get through and we were losing the light. By the time we were on our way to beartooth pass, it was getting late. We saw signs saying that the pass is closed from 8pm to 8am. Looking at the estimates on the gps, we weren't going to make it. Oh poo poo... It was deserted, we were in a sports car, and beartooth highway suddenly became a racetrack. That was the most exciting drive of my life, the hairpin turns, the mountain climb, the engine roaring, and racing the clock to make it through those gates while they were still open. I won't divulge the speeds we were taking those turns at, but suffice to say I was glad it was deserted up there. We made it to the top of the world, 7:58pm through the gates. We made it, and saw that we had caught up to another car that was pushing its luck with timing.  We began the descent, and wished we had more time to stop and take pictures. The views on the way up were just incredible, as the sun set the landscape came alive and the way down the mountain just blew us both away, with twilight fading the cliffs were towering, the drops frightening, and the road exhilarating. With a sigh of relief at beating the clock, we took a much more relaxed drive down from the summit and made it to our hotel in Billings. Tuesday  Olympic Mathlete posted:Is North Dakota truly as boring as it looks from that map? Yes. After what felt like an eternity, we made it to the Canadian border. The car performed admirably on the journey, and barring a minor fault with the rear boot lid, it made it. The border was a surprisingly easy process. I had used a pembina border parcel services that offered a brokerage service for filling the US border paperwork and while I had filled out the RIV forms online, I was not able to print off the forms so I had to to redo them at the border. I had initially forgotten to get the US title stamped at the US office so they let me cross back into the US to have the paperwork stamped, a short wait later I came back through to the Canadian side, filled out the RIV paperwork and paid the piper $2,200 for the import taxes and duty and I was on my way. They never actually looked at the drat car. Got back to Winnipeg, first stop before getting home was to give it a was to get all the road grime and bugs off.  Clean enough for now. I'll do a proper detailing eventually.  Now all that's left is to get it inspected at a Canadian tire (only local place that is certified by RIV to do the inspection, they're first come - first serve so Monday I will be taking it in as I have the day off) and register it in my name (and pay PST on it) and then I'll be spending the winter shopping for various trim and body pieces to fix the 'minor' california damage. Arrived back home to this fuzzball lounging on the coffee table  and a surprisingly comfy dog the next morning.  Only got stopped once throughout the entire trip driving on the temp tags, and that was in Utah and the officer didn't even look at my license or paperwork, just saw a piece of paper in the corner of the windshield as he walked up and was satisfied that that was good enough. I guess I have a trusting face?
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Sep 14, 2017 04:34
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quote:. I will never forget this drive. Next time I'll mail you a parks pass. $80 is really nothing for a year but on a quick trip $30 entry fees add up fast. I'm glad you took my advice and hit up rt 12. I know it was a whirlwind but I'm glad it worked out!!!
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Sep 14, 2017 16:18
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Blaise posted:Next time I'll mail you a parks pass. $80 is really nothing for a year but on a quick trip $30 entry fees add up fast. Yeah, the $80 is reasonable, but I'm just used to the much lower cost of canadian parks (<$10 for a day pass, under $70 CAD for annual, and it's free this year thanks to Canada 150 celebrations). The Porsche is surprisingly comfy, even after spending that much time in the car and with no other additional support, neither I nor my wife had any back pain or other issues. Can't thank you, jamal, and slidebite enough. Thanks again for the suggestions for the route! We blazed through it but now we know where to head back to to explore some more.
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Sep 15, 2017 02:42
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That is a sweet trip.. other than the whole east of Billings thing. Utah is gorgeous and possibly my favourite state. I typically buy an annual pass too as we generally seem to go through parks more than a couple times a year which makes the purchase worthwhile. I have actually had park people check my photo ID versus the park pass (like, really) so borrowing one might be a bit of a risk.. besides, I like to think the fees go to the parks so it's not a bad thing. The US still has the smithsonian institution free though which absolutely blew me away when I was in DC so that's defintely something the US has on us. So talk about the car a little more. Can you elaborate on the issues you weren't happy with? How as the import process in general?
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Sep 15, 2017 04:30
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Glad you made it. And thanks for buying a parks pass, the NPS needs the money. Also it is good until this time next year, so I guess you need to come back and visit some more. And I had no idea beartooth pass closed at night. I've been meaning to go out there to ride bikes but it's like a 5hr drive.
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Sep 15, 2017 04:55
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slidebite posted:So talk about the car a little more. Can you elaborate on the issues you weren't happy with? How as the import process in general? I may be being a little melodramatic, but I'm still not confident I made the right choice going ahead with the purchase. On the plus side the road trip is something I won't soon forget and even as rushed as it was, it was very enjoyable. Mechanically the car is sound, with a good full service record and some major service components replaced, it drives beautifully, the engine sounds great, suspension is firm yet comfortably goes over rough road. The interior is in nice condition, original radio, HVAC controls not worn in the slightest, seats could use some love from a proper clean and conditioning but no tears or worn out areas, all the vents work, and the only broken thing in the interior is one of the seat release levers on the upper back rest. The exterior is the big let down. The front was hit and the bumper will need replacement, both headlights are yellowed and will need to be restored, the passenger side rocker is pushed in and scraped, the rear bumper has some scratching and marks (although after looking at pricing I don't think I'll be replacing it, reman rear is $2500), the under body plastics are in dire shape, and both the front and rear badges are damaged and require replacement. None of these is huge by themselves, but while it had been cared for mechanically, the exterior wasn't so lucky. It was surprising to see the amount of damage, I had inquired about what I saw on the photos, which were low resolution so it looked fine in photos, and the seller mentioned it was either reflections, or that after he had it cleaned you could barely see the affected areas. I was expecting a little bit of cosmetic issues but there was just a lot more than I expected. Addressing all the cosmetic issues is going to be much more expensive than I anticipated, and I feel I made a mistake by not seeing it the night of my arrival as it didn't give me the time required to cool off and not make an impulsive decision. But as the Polish saying goes, it's mustard after dinner, too late now. The import process was surprisingly simple. 1. Checked with RIV's website to ensure the car I wanted was eligible for importation. All Porsche models 2002 to 2017 are admissible, with one caveat for the 08/09 911 Cab, and the enabling of DRL's required on all models. 2. Obtained the recall clearance for the car, Porsche offers an online service for this that the border agencies accept as valid. 3. Obtained an ITN for U.S. customs to export the vehicle from the U.S. , needed to go though a broker as you need to be licensed to fille using the AES system. This step requires 3 business days to process otherwise you'll be leaving the car in the U.S. until those days have passed. The fee is $50 USD, but I had paid a broker $75 USD total to file for me, so only $25 USD more than the fee would have been alone. 4. Fill out the RIV vehicle import form 1, I tied online, paid, got the case number, but it didn't seem to get processed. The Canadian paperwork can be done in person at the border so it's not a big deal. $310 CAD fee. 5. Insured the car through my insurance using the bill of sale and copy of the title. Temp tags to get it home. 6. Going through the border, the title needs to be stamped by the U.S. side to legally export it 7. The vehicle requires either the label of compliance (on mine it's on the passenger door with the vin and a statement that it meets US DOT safety standards) or a letter from the manufacturer stating such. I got lucky as mine was on the door. 8. At the border the filled RIV paperwork is stamped and you get to take that copy to an RIV inspection station, in Manitoba this is only Canadian tires according to the riv website. Pay GST on the car, as as it was not manufactured in North America it's subject to a 6.1% tariff. 9. Get the car inspected, they'll affix a label certifying it meets Canadian standards, get it Manitoba safety inspected. 10. Register the car in my name and finalize transfer of ownership, pay PST on the purchase price of the vehicle. jamal posted:Glad you made it. And thanks for buying a parks pass, the NPS needs the money. Also it is good until this time next year, so I guess you need to come back and visit some more. Definitely need to make another trip within the next year, we flew by so much due to the time crunch. Looks like it's only closed due to construction that's occurring at night, we managed to get past it before they started, otherwise it seems like it's just closed seasonally. They had big orange signs along the way up that it's closed 8pm to 8am, although they looked pretty permanent for being temporary road signs I'm not against supporting the parks, it was just a little jarring to see the daily use fees being so high, the annual pass is a drat good bargain comparatively.
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Sep 15, 2017 21:08
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Man the dude straight up misrepresented the cars condition. Nothing you can do now but that is going to be a costly "impulse" purchase but like you said what's done is done
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Sep 16, 2017 03:02
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That's too bad. I assume you didn't ask for any of the socal guys here to take a quick peek for you? At least you had a good drive. How would you say the car compares in general to the one you just flipped? Better? Worse? Plan on keeping it or flipping it come spring?
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Sep 16, 2017 16:49
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Yeah, in hind sight I should have asked a local goon to check it out and grab higher res photos. The shop that I took it to mentioned that the previous owner lived in the hills and the car has some scratching and marks but I still wasn't expecting that much. Might be a regional expectation thing too as locally we have good insurance and rarely you'd see cars with any body damage at all. Rust yes, but no dings, dents, or scrapes. Oh and the drivers door jamb is all dinged up due to carelessness as it looks like he slammed the door on the seatbelt many times in the past. After selling the last one I really missed it, I really hadn't expected to sell it that quick so I think I want to enjoy this one for a little longer before putting it up for sale, at least a full year of ownership, plus with all the work I've signed up for with it I'm not exactly expecting to make much if anything on it. (Although I'm into this one about $2k more than what I sold my last one for which was 3 years older, 40k km more mileage, and spotty service records) Cosmetics are important for me, bringing it to like-new condition is something I know I will do, partly to help it's resale value, but mostly for me. I really enjoy a clean factory fresh car and while this one is a little ugly on the outside, the inside and drive train are great so it's not all bad. Compared to the old one, this one feels more spacious inside, the nicer steering wheel really complements the car and during spirited driving the extra thickness feels real nice. This one is more feature rich and I'm a sucker for all the little creature comforts, didn't get to test the rain sensing wipers but the auto dimming mirrors are perfect at night with someone trying to blind you from behind. Otherwise it's similar enough to the last one, I really don't notice the additional 5hp this is supposed to have over my previous one. Handling, acceleration, and road feel is the same or close enough that I don't see a difference. Mechanically I feel much more confident with this one thanks to the maintenance records and it being an 08 model. The broken trunk is a little bit of a let down but it was working when we left LA so I can't really fault the seller for it. It feels nice driving a Porsche again.
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Sep 16, 2017 21:59
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Camping this weekend sucked due to the weather (10°C/50°F with this annoying rain but not rain constant mist coming down), so we packed up early and got home, just in time to start cleaning up the Boxster! First things first, started nice and small and rebuilt one of the keys with a new case. Previous owner only ever used the one key, so the second key is pretty much brand new but the key he did use was pretty beat up. Swapped it with the same all black case that I used before and it looks like new again.  With one small thing accomplished, I tackled the faded headlights.  Gave them a polish using CeriGlass and a glass polishing pad on my DA orbital. Looks like it worked! Most of the yellowing is now gone, there looks to be a very small faded spot where the beam pattern shines through on the inside of the lens so nothing I can do unless I disassemble the light. It's only visible under certain angles so I'm assuming it doesn't have much of an effect on the light output so meh, that's too much effort/risk for little benefit.  Threw it back into the car and you can see the difference from Drivers to Passenger.  I popped out the other one and polished it too so that both sides match and look much better. Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to do to seal them, any recommendations? Friend of mine is adamant that a quality clear coat is enough to seal them, and online I've read similar from a quick search. There also look to be dedicated headlamp UV sealers in spray bottles, but the cost seams similar to getting a can of 2K clearcoat and the clearcoat seems like it would give more protection so that's what I'm leaning towards. And apparently shoes make pretty good pillows. 
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Sep 18, 2017 00:17
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Bajaha posted:I popped out the other one and polished it too so that both sides match and look much better. Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to do to seal them, any recommendations? Friend of mine is adamant that a quality clear coat is enough to seal them, and online I've read similar from a quick search. There also look to be dedicated headlamp UV sealers in spray bottles, but the cost seams similar to getting a can of 2K clearcoat and the clearcoat seems like it would give more protection so that's what I'm leaning towards. I use clear headlight tint. It's a self adhesive clear film which takes the beating instead of your lights. I've been using it for years and it doesn't go cloudy over time. Replacing it will be a quick job when the time comes.
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Sep 18, 2017 01:08
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Well I got the most recommended "sealer " spritz bottle on Amazon and did the headlights 5-6 times the first few weeks after polishing them. Guess what? A year later they are yellow again. I'm not going to loving seal them weekly or anything so I don't have an answer.
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Sep 18, 2017 04:10
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Bajaha posted:Co worker of mine actually tipped me off on them, they're cheap things but work well enough. I bought one of these (maybe after several beers). Any suggestions on an app that works with it? I can't seem to "connect" to my cell phone with this one.
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Sep 18, 2017 13:04
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The CameraFi app works for me, although a little slow and bloated with ads at times, I'd assume another USB camera app would work too. What phone, Android version, and app are you trying with? So it looks like the spray sealers are out, tint is not a bad idea but I've never put it on before and thinking of doing the wife's Impreza's lights at the same time so I'm still leaning towards the clear coat approach.
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Sep 18, 2017 18:13
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Baja's back! Was looking forward to another thread. That looked like an epic roadtrip. When I restored my headlights I used Collinite 845 which gave a few months of UV protection but I don't expect it to last over a year. You should check out Rondex in WPG (177 Isabel st). They will have a high quality spray clearcoat. Spray light! My buddy did his subaru and got a little excited - runs everywhere and bad orange peel. Saw you have a DA polisher so you should be able to really shine them up after spraying them if you go the DIY route. Or you could pop the lights out and bring them to a bodyshop, would cost a bit more but would look minty.
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Sep 19, 2017 14:41
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Rather than tint, Expel headlight protection might be what you need. It's basically really beefy clear bra for your headlights. It's like .50-.75mm thick. http://www.xpel.com/headlight-protection-kits/XPEL_US_and_Canada/Passenger_Cars_and_Light_Trucks/2008/Porsche/Boxster/Base Would you mind going in to a little more detail about what this means? I got that it indicates overrevving, but specifically? quote:Scary:
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Sep 20, 2017 14:43
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LloydDobler posted:Would you mind going in to a little more detail about what this means? I got that it indicates overrevving, but specifically? Sure! Newer porsches have a built in 'tattle-tale' that logs over-rev events in either 2 or 6 ranges depending on the model, it logs the number of revolutions that occurred in that range as well as the engine hour of the last event in those ranges. 986/996: Range 1: 7200-7800 RPM Range 2: 7800+ RPM 987/997 (ranges differ for some models like the GT3 and Turbo): Range 1: 7300-7500 RPM Range 2: 7500-7700 RPM Range 3: 7700-7900 RPM Range 4: 7900-8400 RPM Range 5: 8400-9500 RPM Range 6: 9500-11000 RPM On the newer ones with 6 ranges, range 1 and 2 record events that are just before or at the limiter, so if the car's been redlined a lot you'll see a lot of events in range 1 and some in range 2. Typically any events in ranges 3+ result in Porsche not honoring the warranty one the car as it indicates abuse, and as a general rule should make you a little wary. So with my findings on that car, it had revd above 7900 rpm but below 8400 rpm for a total of 13 engine revolutions at 350 operating hours on the engine. Typically problems would appear within the next 50 hours of operation if they were to cause a catastrophic failure, but I suspect if the damage isn't enough to cause immediate failure, it would cause some wear that could affect the longevity of the engine, as that one was around 3000 engine hours and there were suspect noises coming from the motor I decided not to risk it.
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Sep 20, 2017 15:46
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That's fascinating, thanks! Makes a lot of sense on a true sports car, I wonder if my Volvo has anything like that. It does have a really sophisticated interface that can talk to basically every system in the car. On the other hand, I've only hit the rev limiter once in my entire ownership of Volvos new enough to have rev limiters. I actually got distracted and forgot to shift out of 1st.
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Sep 21, 2017 23:09
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Well Boo. Porsche did not pass a Manitoba safety. Apparently the inner tie rods have some play. On the plus side it did pass the RIV inspection so now the car is legally 100% registrable in Canada! Parts are ordered and on their way. The front brakes are an advisement but pass as-is, figured might as well while I have the wheels off to do the tie rods.  So now it just gets to sit until the parts arrive, insurance has expired on it and I won't re-insure it until after I have replaced the tie rods, so hidden away into garage it goes.  But before that happened, I don't think I mentioned it, but my wife's subaru was leaking oil. I didn't really notice at first other than a light whiff of burnt oil but eventually I was  You'll notice that a skid plate does a swell job of collecting any dripping oil, letting it pool and discreetly dropping wherever you go.  Now, before you call me an idiot for just having the car on jacks, I did put stands underneath, although I was super lazy and cold so I didn't follow the proper procedure but this seemed to mitigate potential disaster enough to keep going and well  .  So... I'm an idiot. I either didn't tighten the oil filter properly last change, or I didn't clean off the mating surface, but either way, I think we can all see where my mystery oil leak was coming from. In any case, the skid plate does an excellent job of creating enough turbulent air in the air that the pooling oil will mist everything behind the skid plate and coat it with a nice even coat of oil. In the spirit of Good Enoughtm I cleaned off the skid plate with a couple wipes, and wiped around the motor as well as I could.  And with that, the deed was done. Crossing my fingers that was the only leak, with how the oil kinda got everywhere I'm not certain, but time will tell. Baja got booted out of the garage to make room for the Porsche, it's next up for an oil change before this winter.  Bajaha fucked around with this message at 03:58 on Sep 26, 2017 |
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Sep 26, 2017 03:51
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Too bad about the rod ends but that's to be expected with 142K and likely original. How are the tires? Are you going to need new boots when you line it up afterwards?
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Sep 26, 2017 04:46
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Bajaha posted:The CameraFi app works for me, although a little slow and bloated with ads at times, I'd assume another USB camera app would work too. What phone, Android version, and app are you trying with? Cheers. I tried CameraFi, I'm using an oneplus 2 on android 6.0.1. It could just be my phone, in which case I'll have to drag my laptop outside for car pokey things.
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Sep 26, 2017 16:44
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slidebite posted:Too bad about the rod ends but that's to be expected with 142K and likely original. How are the tires? Are you going to need new boots when you line it up afterwards? I was hoping it would pass with no issues as the PPI only mentioned the front brakes requiring attention sooner rather than later, but as you say at 142k km and likely original (didn't see them anywhere in the service records) it's to be expected. For all I know my road trip was the last straw that broke the camel's back. Tires looked great when I saw them in California, looked to have even wear and while not as new as he had lead me to believe, they looked to have plenty of life left and have a late 2015 date code. I'll have to double check now after my trip to see if I scrubbed off a significant portion of them, but no advisement from the safety inspection so they shouldn't be too bad. On the plus side, I did do some shopping therapy and bought this:  Probably one of my favorite little aesthetic changes I did to the last one, we'll see how the chrome finish fits. Pomp and Circumcized posted:Cheers. I tried CameraFi, I'm using an oneplus 2 on android 6.0.1. It could just be my phone, in which case I'll have to drag my laptop outside for car pokey things. Verify it works on a friends phone if you can, or at least with the laptop. I wouldn't be too surprised if its a faulty camera, at this price I don't have much faith in their QC. I'm assuming you've already tried uninstalling/installing the app again?
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Sep 27, 2017 02:13
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So... I've been up to something. And got to visit the one I sold too quick 
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Oct 4, 2017 04:24
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slidebite posted:How are the tires? Are you going to need new boots when you line it up afterwards? Things got a little convoluted. The new owner of my previous Porsche is a bit of an interesting guy (and really talkative) and we ended up staying in touch after he bought the car. Well he was looking for a set of aftermarket wheels in black and when I heard that I offered to buy my wheels/tires back as they were pretty much brand new. He was looking for 19"-20" wheels so he wasn't interested in keeping the wheels. Not my cup of tea to go with wheels that big but to each their own. While my tires on mine now are good, the wheels have seen better days. I swear the previous owner was an idiot (aren't they all?)  The set he ended up finding are actually 18" wheels, with the same Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires, although he got ripped off a little as the seller he was purchasing from insisted the tires were good and only a few years old and he took his word for it. When I came to pick up my old set I took a look at the tires he bought as he mentioned they were much rougher riding and he had a vibration above 90kph that wasn't there before. His rears were shot, the fronts were still OK for tread, but I read the date codes and they're back from mid 2007 manufacture date. Oof. When he took them to a tire place the found the rears had actually delaminated. Well, I wasn't going to use the set currently on my car and they were much newer with a late 2015 manufacture date, fronts were at 8/32 and rears at 5.5/32, so he ended up buying them back and throwing the front tires on and got a new set for the rears. As much as I'm not a fan of black wheels on black cars, with the silver trim along the lip I don't mind what he's done with it. And as a testament to Rebirth Detailing here in Winnipeg, the car hasn't been washed even once since I sold it and it still looks pretty fantastic minus some dust.  So after all of that back and forth, I ended up with my old set of wheels and barely worn tires, and my new set of wheels. Now I just have to take the two sets in to transfer over the TPMS sensors as my 05 never had them. I'll probably just end up selling off the other set of wheels as I don't really need two sets for this car. Back to my garage  Going to pickup the parts in the US this week and my wheel appointment is at the end of the month so with nothing else to do I mounted the exhaust tips.    If there's one saving grace of working on California cars, it's that all the hardware is 100% clean with not even a hint of rust so it comes apart and goes back together super easy. For whatever reason these tips were just a breeze to fit on compared to the previous set. Now I've got two of the factory ones, threw them up for sale and I guess we'll see if they go.  The only other thing I'm debating for the exhaust is doing something similar to the Carnewal mod, which modifies the rear cat to free up the exhaust a little. YouTube videos all suck as it's really hard to hear what will sound good. Was thinking maybe even removing the secondary cats completely but I'm still on the fence if I want to go through the effort, especially since I don't have easy access to a welder. Factory non-PSE exhaust (I think?):  Factory PSE: 
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Oct 9, 2017 18:27
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I'm not a fan of that particular wheel design, personally (I think it'd look more at home on an older model - say, late 80s?), but black wheels with a polished lip, black car, with a moderately low profile tire... it just looks right. Nice car man, and a hell of a road trip. The cosmetic stuff is certainly annoying, but that's about what I'd expect on something that actually gets driven where I'm at, personally. Look at it this way, even with the cosmetic stuff, you have a true rust free California car, which can only help the value whenever you decide to sell it. That car wash photo still blows me away. Self service washes where I'm at are 2 walls and a roof, you're lucky if 1/4 of the lights even work at night. This is the one up the street from me, and is pretty much how they all look down here (ignore the yellow building next to it, that's some kind of mechanic shop). Front bays are wash bays, rear bays are vacuum/dry/pick up your car and shake it over a garbage can bays). randomidiot fucked around with this message at 08:11 on Oct 10, 2017 |
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Oct 10, 2017 08:09
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Yu-Gi-Ho! posted:That car wash photo still blows me away. Self service washes where I'm at are 2 walls and a roof, you're lucky if 1/4 of the lights even work at night. This is the one up the street from me, and is pretty much how they all look down here (ignore the yellow building next to it, that's some kind of mechanic shop). Front bays are wash bays, rear bays are vacuum/dry/pick up your car and shake it over a garbage can bays). We get snow, so our car washes have to be kind of enclosed and heated. That's not even the nice kind of car wash; the one I used to use had separate brick walls for each enclosure, piped in music and had a guarantee that they didn't just recycle the salt water you drained into the sewer and put it back into the guns. I was dumbstruck when I visited Italy and they had a car wash that was just an open-air parking lot with some hoses on a fence.
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Oct 10, 2017 17:22
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Yu-Gi-Ho! posted:I'm not a fan of that particular wheel design, personally (I think it'd look more at home on an older model - say, late 80s?), but black wheels with a polished lip, black car, with a moderately low profile tire... it just looks right. Not my cup of tea either but considering what most people get when they buy aftermarket wheels and the initial want of 20" wheels, he could have done much worst. Yeah the car washes up here are all closed in due to the cold weather. My favourites are the ones with good pressure (especially the presoak), timers displaying remaining time and decent time per dollar, and spot free rinse where the filters are maintained. We've got a few of the brick building single bay wide drive through ones with the roll doors you lift/pull open with a half frozen soaked rope or chain. Completely open like that is completely unheard of up here. With the body damage I think I'm just spoiled with Manitoba forcing everyone to have full coverage for insurance so if anyone gets into an accident they make a claim through mpi and it gets fixed. Your rates don't increase for claims, at worst you lose part/all of your discount depending how much it is (up to 33% for the max I think) if you're deemed at fault. It's rare to see damaged cars running around here unless they're old beaters. I think I mentioned before, but when I asked the PO about why he didn't claim the damage on the front bumper through his insurance, he said he didn't want his rates to increase. It's just foreign to me to not want to go through insurance due to increasing rates even when you're not at fault.
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Oct 11, 2017 01:55
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Comprehensive claims don't affect your insurance in theory, though I had a total loss claim from vandalism, and my rates with that particular company tripled when my policy came up for renewal (switched at that time, obviously). I think state law here prevents them from using a comp claim as the basis to raise your rates, but they can non-renew you based on comp claims (I wound up getting better rates than what I had before when I switched tho). Collision claims - which that stuff would probably fall under - definitely affect your rates if reported as at-fault. If they're not-at-fault claims (and your insurance company agrees), they can still hit your rates to an extent. And like everything else in the US, it's different in every state. The no-fault states are their own special breed. Seat Safety Switch posted:We get snow, so our car washes have to be kind of enclosed and heated. We get snow too, though obviously nowhere near as much as you guys (and rarely outside of January). I'm used to just seeing the car washes (... all of them, not just the self service ones) shut down completely when we get our weak version of winter. The pump equipment at all of the self service ones I've seen is in a little shack in the middle of the bays, which has heat, but everything else is exposed. But our snow is typically a handful of days a year, and rarely significant. What fucks us over is when we get any kind of precip in the winter when we get warm enough to start thawing the poo poo out during the day and getting below freezing at night, that particular shitstorm shut down a lot of DFW for a week. The automatic self service ones I've seen (the ones you find at gas stations - touchless or not) have roll up doors, but they're only closed when it gets cold enough to worry about ice, and there's some kind of heater in them (ranging from some higher powered halogen lamps to actual heaters). randomidiot fucked around with this message at 14:12 on Oct 11, 2017 |
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Oct 11, 2017 14:05
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Oh man, thank gently caress we don't get freezing rain too often here, always makes the roads hell, even with winter tires driving on sheets of ice is sketchy at best, I hear the studded ones excel in those conditions though. We get the thaw-freeze cycle in between seasons but by the time we get like that they've already sanded (and salted...) the roads enough that it doesn't become a total skating rink due to the aggregate stuck in the ice providing traction.
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Oct 11, 2017 15:43
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Seat Safety Switch posted:and had a guarantee that they didn't just recycle the salt water you drained into the sewer and put it back into the guns.  The filtration sounds like a nightmare so your customers are not sandblasting their vehicles and maintenance of the pressure pumps and wands/tips would be monstrous. Would be easier and cheaper just always use a fresh source once labor and maintenance are figured in.
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Oct 11, 2017 18:04
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slidebite posted:Whaa? Is that seriously even a thing or an old wives tale? Yeah, it sounded fishy to me too. Then again, my local spray and pray has at best 2/5 bays working at any given time because their guns keep dying...
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Oct 12, 2017 00:13
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slidebite posted:Whaa? Is that seriously even a thing or an old wives tale? It's a wastewater issue. I'm no expert on it but yeah it's regulated by the EPA, and they have water usage standards to meet.
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Oct 12, 2017 01:29
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Huh, so I learned a thing today. https://www.carwash.com/carwash-water-recycling/ Looks like it's a common practice, with the early stages of washes (soaks, soaps, etc) likely being recycled and final rinse likely being fresh water but not necessarily. The filter systems do seem they would be expensive and maintenance intensive. Also trying to see if I can find how they filter out dissolved solids like salt. I wonder how much a basic tds meter costs, would be interesting to go around town and measure the various rinse and spot free waters and compare them as well as see if the quality declines during winter. Would give an objective comparison of the quality.
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Oct 12, 2017 04:17
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That's genuinely interesting. I sort of know the carwash guys at my regular haunt. I'll chat them up about that and see if I can find out info on the filtration system they use.
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Oct 12, 2017 04:22
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So I think the Subaru's got jealous of all the attention the Boxster's been getting as both the Baja and the wife's Impreza have been acting up. The Baja seems to have developed a worrying knock. I've tried moving my head around the engine bay and using a mechanics stethoscope and it's a pain to nail down where exactly it's coming from, my best guess was somewhere from the front... maybe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgsr-jg9kHI To help narrow things down, I removed the accessory belt and voila, the noise appears to be gone. I've run it a few more times for 10 mins or so at a time and I couldn't get the noise to come back. I'll throw on the belt again and confirm the noise comes back but for now I'm thinking it's the PS pump, as I can't think that the alternator would be the source of the noise. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBXx1rJOCsk Also found the turn signal switch is semi-broken as the fog lights flicker off momentarily when I indicate left. Ordered a used replacement part so that should sort that out once it comes in. Apparently the turn signal switch WITH the fog light switch is much more rare than the version without. Bajaha posted:And with that, the deed was done. Crossing my fingers that was the only leak, with how the oil kinda got everywhere I'm not certain, but time will tell. Yeah... about that. It continued smoking after a good drive, and marked its territory when parked. My Wife doesn't drive much so I've been able to procrastinate enough that we got our first snowfall greater than a light dusting  As much as I didn't it want the oil leak to be coming from behind the timing cover, well it was and it has to be addressed.  Service position and getting undressed   Mmmm... oily  Definitely wont rust at least  Makes a nice radial pattern as it seeps out and gets flung about  So I take it these are classic symptoms of a failed crank seal.  So it looks like I'm ordering a new timing belt kit, new crank seal, and I'm thinking the camshaft seals might be a good idea to do as well (although I haven't had good luck in the past with installing them, so maybe leave them? I don't think they're the source as there is a considerable amount of oil around the crank seal so I think it's the main source of the leak) 
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Nov 6, 2017 01:52
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RE that sound, that's not really a knock that's sounds like something loose and rattling around. Check all the pulleys/idlers for play in case something got loose. And I wouldn't worry about the cam seals if you're 100% sure they aren't leaking. If something isn't hosed, don't gently caress with it unless you have to.
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Nov 6, 2017 02:40
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While the crank seal is out, make sure the oil pump screws haven't backed off. It might even make sense to pull the oil pump now and loctite them. Usually it only affects the really old engines (like pre-95) but with that much oil around the crank seal I'm wondering if it might not be a bad idea to play Detective NotGoingToBuyANewEngine. Also, you have a newer engine, so the accessory drive is that super weird Subaru stretch belt poo poo. Those are annoying to install but at least you don't destroy your AC idler by accident like I did.
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Nov 6, 2017 04:11
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This week I'll start getting more into it, the lock tite idea doesn't sound too bad, at the very least I'll loosen and tighten to spec. Checked for play on the PS on the Baja and it's got some play, although I double checked against the Impreza and that one seems worst. Threw the belt back on, noise came back, took it off and its gone, so I'm fairly confident that it's that. Oh and I got greeted by a check engine light for the O2 heater circuit, but it went away on the start, got to check the plug and make sure it's tight. Oh and gently caress that stretch belt. Was a pain to get off, are they reusable? They even have the mounting holes for the old style tensioner even though it's been stretch belt for a while.
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Nov 6, 2017 04:33
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Bajaha posted:Oh and gently caress that stretch belt. Was a pain to get off, are they reusable? Not supposed to be. Needs magic tools apparently too, but you can fake it. Don't have a car new enough to have tried it myself.
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Nov 6, 2017 04:41
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