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We charge $65 per hour based on book time except for certain jobs that we know we can beat book by a good margin. Customers supply their own parts and fluids which is where their big savings come in. My guy with the Cadillac no showed last night so I put the front end together loosely on the Accord. I put the new knuckles, struts, calipers, rotors, and ball joints on the car. I still have to put the sway links on and then tighten everything down to spec and bleed the brakes. Every time I think the project list is getting shorter something adds to it. I hear something that sounds like a bad wheel bearing in the rear end of my Lexus. This sucks rear end because I just replaced both wheel bearings like 3 months and maybe 1000 miles ago. Then my wife calls me yesterday afternoon saying the AC in the Jeep isn't working at all. She didn't get home until late last night because she went to visit her friend who was having a baby. She had work at 5 this morning so I have not had a chance to look at it. I would like to work on it tonight but we are having a whole-family dinner with my mom and tomorrow we have tickets to one of those all day festival concerts. End E/N.
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| # ? Aug 13, 2010 13:19 |
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| # ? May 21, 2013 18:47 |
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I looked at the Jeep last night. One of the fittings on the accumulator was leaking. When I fixed the AC I had forgotten to tighten the bolt that holds the accumulator in place. The accumulator had jostled around enough that it dug into the o-ring and that was the source of the leak. This morning I replaced the o-ring, evacuated the system with my vacuum pump and refilled with new refrigerant and compressor oil. The air is cold now. More E/N. My little brother called me last night saying his 1992 Accord's clutch and transmission weren't acting right. Of course the car was in the right line of a four-lane street. So my wife and I drove down and used our AAA membership to get the car towed. When I arrived the clutch was on the floor and wasn't coming back up on its own. The shifter felt like it was connected to nothing. I looked under the hood and saw that the shifter cable had come loose from the transmission. I hooked it back on and the shifter was working again. I put the non-functioning clutch to the floor and started the car. It jumped forward and I was able to get it running and pull it into a nearby parking lot. AAA came a few minutes later and we got it towed back to my house. It looks like the clutch slave cylinder is leaking. The problem at hand though is my wife's 2000 Honda Accord on four jackstands in the garage. I worked on it this afternoon. The only things left to do are to bleed the front brakes (new bigger calipers) and remove the stuck bearing race on the passenger rear corner and bolt on the new wheel bearing and rotor with the existing caliper. Hopefully my neighbor can help me remove the evil bearing tonight or tomorrow so I can get this project done. I might be replacing a timing belt in a 2000 CR-V next weekend for money.
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| # ? Aug 14, 2010 23:15 |
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Man, I hope that whole craigslist thing works out for you. The problem I see with operating out of your house is that it puts a big red flag up that says "I HAVE TOOLS TO STEAL", also everyone who might have a negative experience later down the road now knows where you live. Wasn't there a goon who posted recently about getting shot at / nearly shot at when some rough dudes came to "look at" some wheels he was selling? I don't want to rain on your parade, I just hope it'll work out for you.
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| # ? Aug 15, 2010 00:03 |
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Yeah, I worry about it a little. We don't open the garage door and work on anything until after the car's owner has left. Here are some pics of the work in progress. I mounted the wheels up just to see how it will look. The front wheels have to come off to bleed the brakes. Then they will have to come off again on Tuesday when the ABS sensors arrive.  Click here for the full 2048x1536 image.  Click here for the full 2048x1536 image.  Click here for the full 2048x1536 image. I got this magazine in the mail today and I feel ashamed.  Click here for the full 1536x2048 image.
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| # ? Aug 15, 2010 02:29 |
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Given you live in the 'burbs, do you have to worry about zoning or property taxes or somesuch regarding you and your neighbour operating an auto-service business out of a residential home? I just had my timing belt replaced by my local mechanic, with the water pump and a couple of gaskets and other while-you're-in-there kinds of things, and it was rather expensive. When I reach 400 000 km I'll drive to Nebraska or wherever the hell you are instead, assuming you're still willing to work on such things.
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| # ? Aug 16, 2010 03:37 |
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I would worry about such things if I was planning on consistently having such work. For the time being I can hide what I'm doing in the garage and no one can really argue too much. My neighbor came over and we got that bearing race cut off from the rear spindle. All that remains is to put the new bearing and rotor on that corner and bleed the front brakes, then take it in to Firestone to have them align it for free (lifetime alignment). Here is a picture of my neighbor grinding away the old bearing race.  Click here for the full 1536x2048 image. Sparks!
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| # ? Aug 16, 2010 14:54 |
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The guy with the 1994 Accord never called me back. That car had question marks anyway so I'm not too worried about it. I was browsing craigslist this morning and I came across this a 1995 Toyota Avalon with 167k miles. I called and got no answer, so I sent a text message and the seller got back to me in a couple of minutes. We had about 15 text messages back and forth to arrange a time and place to meet. I took off early from lunch and my wife and I met him at his house. He is from Minnesota and recently graduated from a local college and his parents gave him a newer car. He has not driven the Toyota since May. The Avalon wouldn't start, but my wife brought our jump pack from home and the car fired right up. It ran without the jump pack and the battery light wasn't on, so it looked like the alternator was OK. I drove the car around the block and everything seemed OK with the transmission. The fluids were all in good order, the fluid levels were appropriate and nothing smelled burnt. The car had new tires put on a couple of months before the car was put aside in May. The passenger rear door doesn't shut perfect, I think maybe the hinge is bent a little. There is a dent in the passenger rear quarter, but nothing serious. I had one of these cars about a year ago. It had a lot more miles and needed a bunch of work and new tires right off the bat. I changed all the fluids and put some used tires and new brakes and struts on that car and sold it to my younger brother and his fiancee ("baby mama" at the time). I liked the car and wished I hadn't sold it. First up, the pics from the CL ad:     My first stop after buying the car was the auto parts store because the battery would not hold a charge AT ALL. Ten seconds after parking the car the battery didn't have enough power to roll up a window. The car looks like a baby Lexus LS400, but a little frumpier.  Click here for the full 1331x998 image.  Click here for the full 1331x998 image.  Click here for the full 1331x998 image.  Click here for the full 1331x998 image.  Click here for the full 1331x998 image.  Click here for the full 1331x998 image.  Click here for the full 1331x998 image. The interior is kind of skunky and needs a good cleaning. Check out that BENCH SEAT!  Click here for the full 1331x998 image. Woops, I meant 168k miles.  Click here for the full 1331x998 image. The car has a pretty nice-looking Pioneer CD player with USB and iPod inputs.  Click here for the full 1331x998 image. Look at all that gook in the cowl.  Click here for the full 1331x998 image.  Click here for the full 1331x998 image. No spare tire, bummer.  Click here for the full 1331x998 image. A better picture of the rear quarter panel damage:  Click here for the full 998x1331 image. Evidence of incomplete door seal (also, the dome light doesn't shut off when this door is shut, probably the problem that led to the doom of the battery):  Click here for the full 1331x998 image. The plan is to take that CD player and put in a cheaper one I have lying around, fix the rear passenger door, pull the rear quarter out as best I can with a suction cup, then detail this big old thing and get it sold. I already know I will be sad to sell it but I have too many cars to keep this thing around. Edit: I got my wife's car all put back together and the brakes bled last night except for two things. I broke the positive battery terminal putting the battery back in the car and I forgot that I would need one more lug nut at all four corners because of the five-lug conversion. So I got the new lug nuts and battery terminal when I was at the parts store. The new ABS sensors should have been delivered today so I will put those in tonight as well. PBCrunch fucked around with this message at Aug 17, 2010 around 18:49 |
| # ? Aug 17, 2010 18:12 |
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This is a really nice thread PBCrunch. Could you show some pictures of the before/after type with your cleaning method(tm)? I'd like to see what the engine ends up looking like after the pressure wash.
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| # ? Aug 17, 2010 19:36 |
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Can you give me a ballpark on what your A/C repair tools cost you roughly altogether? Really, I want you to post a How-to, since you seem pretty drat confident about it, but a general idea on what it'd cost me to get the tools to start getting my feet wet w/ A/C would be a good start.
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| # ? Aug 17, 2010 19:48 |
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I won't be able to do much cleaning for a couple of days. I have to leave the car at my brother's house since I don't really have room for another car at my house since his car is already there waiting for me to fix the clutch hydraulic problem. The main things you need for AC are a manifold gauge set and a vacuum pump. If you have a domestic car you will probably also need a set of fuel/ac line disconnect tools. You can borrow a gauge set at Autozone in the loan a tool program. I think the deposit is around $90. HF sells a gauge set for about $40. I have the HF set but I don't like it, so I just borrow the set from AZ. The vacuum pump is the tricky part. I have seen it on the list of loan-a-tool stuff at AZ but none of the stores around me actually have one. HF sells three different kinds. The $15 venturi one needs a really big air compressor to make it work, so it probably won't help. The 2.5 cfm single-stage model is never in stock at the store near me, so I bought the 3 cfm two-stage pump for about $130. It was on sale and I had a 20% off coupon. I like the vacuum pump. My neighbor the mechanic said it looked like it drew a good strong vacuum. The line disconnect tools are needed if you work on domestic cars. Some imports probably use them too, I don't know. I know the quick-connect fittings are usually a pain in the rear end to disconnect even if you have the tools. You will need to know where a few things are. Obviously the compressor and its clutch. You also need to know where the low pressure shutoff switch is located, because you may need to jump the switch to make the compressor turn on if the system is depleted of refrigerant. If you are trying to diagnose a leak you might be able to listen for hissing, but more than likely will need some dyed refrigerant and maybe a UV light. Sometimes you can see the dye without the UV light, sometimes not. Just put in the dyed refrigerant and let the AC run for 20-30 minutes. The UV light isn't very bright, so if you can look for the dye in a dark garage it helps. They sell a big variety pack of new o-rings at the auto parts store for like $5. You will need a non-pressurized bottle of compressor oil to lubricate them before you put them on. If you put a new compressor in a car you should pour the amount of oil specified in the service documentation into the compressor before putting it in the car. The vacuum pump won't remove it, the pump is just there to boil off water in the lines. The pressurized cans of compressor oil are good enough if you are replacing anything other than the compressor. When filling an AC system you are supposed to go by weight, not by the pressure readings on the gauges. I just get it close. Multiples of twelve ounce cans seem to get it close enough to whatever weight is supposed to be in the system. If you replace a compressor you should also replace the receiver/drier (accumulator) and the orifice tube if the car has one. They are like filters for the AC system and you wouldn't want to have a piece of foreign matter blow up a brand new compressor. Between the pump, your own set of GOOD non-HF gauges and line tools you have maybe $250 invested in tools. All my cars are pretty old, so having the tools around is a good thing. If you only need them once you could borrow the AZ gauges and sell the vacuum pump when you are done and only be down $50 or so. I see ads in CL all the time for people wanting to buy a used vacuum pump, but never anyone selling. PBCrunch fucked around with this message at Aug 17, 2010 around 20:22 |
| # ? Aug 17, 2010 20:20 |
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PBCrunch posted:A.C. tool run-through
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| # ? Aug 18, 2010 01:46 |
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Oh the perils of driving around in an unfamiliar vehicle. It was raining yesterday and the wipers on the new Avalon wouldn't work very well because of all the gunk and debris on the cowl. The car had sat all summer before I bought it yesterday. So I wanted to spray out the cowl and clean up the underhood at the pay and spray carwash. I stopped at the grocery store to buy some Simple Green. When I came back to the car the key I had used in the ignition would not open the doors. Of course the other keys the seller had given me were all locked inside the car. So I called my wife who was working at AAA. She sent a truck out to unlock the car for me. For those who haven't seen this process, the technician (?) uses a lever to pry the door open a little bit, then puts an inflatable air bladder inside the door jamb. He then inflates the bladder so the door is wedged open just a crack. He then has a semi-flexible metal rod that he uses to pull the handle or poke the unlock button. So after that delay I did spray SG all over the engine and then spray it down. I washed all the tree debris out of the cowl and out of the trunk jamb. I went to pick up my brother to go grab my Integra from the Avalon seller's house when I encountered this gem, a second-generation Geo Metro with a pickup conversion and a racing stripe.  Click here for the full 1518x1064 image.  Click here for the full 1808x1175 image.  Click here for the full 1369x873 image. My brother took my Integra home and I drove home in the Avalon. I went home and shot the poo poo with my neighbor a little and by this time it was about 8:30 at night. Where does the time go? I forgot to take pictures of the now-clean underhood. I don't think it turned out as amazing as the underhood spray down I did on that Escort wagon. That car cleaned up very nicely for some reason that I can't explain. I got up early this morning and finished m wife's Accord. I had forgotten that I would need an extra lug nut at all four corners because of the five-lug conversion. I had broken the positive battery terminal when I re-connected it the previous evening, and I had to install the new ABS sensors.  Click here for the full 1919x826 image.  Click here for the full 1859x1170 image.  Click here for the full 1986x1273 image. I got all of that done and took the Accord for a spin to bed in the new brake pads. The car feels great. The damping feels like a new car, and the new brakes have great pedal feel. When I got home I still had a little time before I had to get ready for work so I put all my tools away, swept up all the rust chunks on the garage floor and hosed out the garage so the floor will be relatively clean for whatever project I start in on tonight. My wife took the car to the DMV for a title inspection (since the car was previously titled out of state) and got license plates for it. I am always nervous about a recently acquired car being stolen or something until I have it registered.
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| # ? Aug 18, 2010 16:23 |
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I've always liked the Avalon. It's kind of like a Japanese take on the Crown Vic, but drives better. Nice find.
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| # ? Aug 18, 2010 21:24 |
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It is more like a Japanese Olds 88/98 since it is FWD and has a transverse six cylinder. I ordered a set of Progress springs for my Integra. The Skunk2 springs are too low and too stiff for my tastes. The car scrapes over everything, bottoms out more often than I would like, and the ride is pretty harsh. There is a little rattle in the rear end of the car; with the stock springs it would rattle after hitting a big bump, with the Skunk2s it rattles pretty much nonstop. The Progress springs are a much lower spring rate and the drop is 1.6/1.6 inch F/R, compares to 2.5/2.25 inch for the Skunk2s. I will sell the Skunk2s after the new springs get here. It should only take a couple of hours to do the springs the second time since I know what to expect and all the bolts are tight. It is a good thing I sprung for (ba-doom-ching) the lifetime alignment.
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| # ? Aug 18, 2010 22:02 |
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So why did you do a five lug conversion on the Accord? Better brakes?
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| # ? Aug 19, 2010 00:07 |
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Ive only seen one other column shift Avalon before...my neighbor has the next generation of that car with one. Very bizarre looking in a Japanese car. Neat find though...great cars too.
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| # ? Aug 19, 2010 01:06 |
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The five lug conversion was to upgrade to the bigger calipers and rotors from a V6 Accord. The brake upgrade could have been accomplished using Prelude VTEC rotors and Accord wagon calipers but this also leaves the Accord with the same bolt pattern and similar offset to my Lexus so they can theoretically share wheels (center bore is different though).
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| # ? Aug 19, 2010 03:03 |
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As promised now I will deliver pics of the cleaned-up engine bay of the Avalon. First let us revisit the before pictures: Click here for the full 1331x998 image. Click here for the full 1331x998 image. And now the after:  Click here for the full 2048x1536 image.  Click here for the full 1536x2048 image.  Click here for the full 1536x2048 image. This took all of about seven minutes, a bottle of Simple Green, and $1.50 in quarters to accomplish. It isn't a miraculous difference but it is the difference between selling a car that looked ignored and one that looks like it has been cared for. Last night I had a chance to check out the failed-wheel-bearing-like noise the Lexus was making. It turns out the axle nut wasn't tightened down all the way. I tightened it up and took the car for a test drive and the noise is GONE. I was pretty stoked about that. I wasn't looking forward to pulling the spindle off to have a new bearing pressed in again. Then I got to work on my brother's Accord. The clutch quit working the other night when he was out getting an authentic South 24th Street burrito with his nine month old daughter at 10 o'clock at night. We had the car towed to my house Friday night but other projects have kept me from working on it. My awesome neighbor helped me bleed the clutch the other night so I was able to actually drive the car into the garage instead of having to push it up the driveway. Big ups to CH for that. I was going to be laying on the floorboard so first thing I had to vacuum the carpet. Josh, you are a slob. I got that done then started getting the master cylinder out. The MC and its associated fluid reservoir is only held in with a clip, a line fitting and four bolts, but one of those four bolts is a bitch to reach. I got it though. I also got the slave cylinder disconnected and unbolted. Then I realized all the replacement parts were in the car I loaned my brother so work stopped for the evening. I got up early this morning and got right to work investigating the non-functional AC in the Avalon. I hooked up my gauges and the system was low. It had no pressure on the high side and only about 10 psi on the low side. I connected a can of dyed freon (not really freon, R-134a) and turned on the AC. The compressor kicked on and it slurped down the whole can of freon. It immediately started hissing and a green cloud was pouring out of the bottom of the condenser like a scene from the Simpsons. Having reached a stopping point there I decided to replace the speakers in my brother's car. I told him I would when I sold him the car, but he never brought it over for me to work on. Speakers in an old Accord are pretty easy. The key is realizing that 6.5 inch speakers don't really fit. If you drop down to 5.25 inch speakers they fit factory perfect. I got all four speakers out and will be able to put them in with just a half an hour's work tonight. I just need to find the wire colors so I can make sure to get the polarity right on all the speakers. They had already been poorly replaced with some junk Pioneers, so I do not trust the existing wiring. I found a used condenser for the Avalon in town for $35. Fingers crossed that will solve the AC problem in the car.
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| # ? Aug 19, 2010 15:25 |
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At the pay and spray, do you do anything special to protect the electrical poo poo, or? Worrying about this is why my engine bays all look like a pollen fight in an oil factory.
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| # ? Aug 19, 2010 15:30 |
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Splizwarf posted:At the pay and spray, do you do anything special to protect the electrical poo poo, or? It's risky, I won't attempt it on my Crown Vic because I've read horror stories, but I don't care if it's dirty because it's a personal car. When you're selling a car though you really have to get it cleaned up, and just hope water doesn't get where it's not supposed to I guess.
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| # ? Aug 19, 2010 15:52 |
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I just let the engine run while I spray. If it starts running bad I know it is time to stop. The spinning of the engine keeps water out of the distributor and the alternator. If your car has deep spark plug wells drive it around a little bit to get it nice and warm then pull the boots out and let the water evaporate. It will probably be pretty loving hot so it should boil out quickly. I used to shut the engine down but a couple of times that led to a car that wouldn't start afterwards. In those cases I pulled the spark plug boots and the dizzy cap, waited a short while, put them back on, and was ready to roll again. Edit: If the car has a coil pack or something that is known to be a little bitch when it gets wet cover it up with a plastic bag or something before you start spraying.
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| # ? Aug 19, 2010 16:14 |
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I'm in the same boat on the engine cleaning. Mine is filthy but I'd rather have a dirty running engine than a clean broken one. I'm afraid of electronics primarily. Good idea on letting the engine run though.
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| # ? Aug 19, 2010 16:26 |
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When I worked at an expensive car wash/detailing place in high school we sprayed down like ten engine bays per day and never had any problems. Cars are made to operate in rain and high humidity.
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| # ? Aug 19, 2010 17:01 |
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Some cars are prone to having issues though, the coil packs on Crown Vics are very delicate and even people trying to cover them up had issues so I don't even bother. Cars without coil packs I wouldn't worry about though.
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| # ? Aug 19, 2010 17:15 |
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I actually was more worried about fuseboxes, connection blocks, and sensors. These aren't issues?
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| # ? Aug 19, 2010 19:07 |
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Splizwarf posted:I actually was more worried about fuseboxes, connection blocks, and sensors. These aren't issues? Not as long as you use common sense. Spraying a fuse box or connection box? No problem. Keeping the hose there and trying to direct spray to bounce up and inside the box? Well... you can always MAKE something bad happen. PBC -- use my WD40 trick to really make that engine compartment pop.
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| # ? Aug 19, 2010 19:40 |
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meatpimp posted:PBC -- use my WD40 trick to really make that engine compartment pop. Is this a... secret trick?
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| # ? Aug 19, 2010 19:43 |
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It also is horrendous on some plastics. I wouldn't get that stuff anywhere near the varnished wire in an alternator nor stuff like MAFs that can be quite fragile.
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| # ? Aug 19, 2010 19:44 |
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For these cars I sell I don't want to make the stuff under the hood look shiny, I just want it to look clean. Shady used car dealers make everything glossy and slick. People who maintain their cars just keep things clean. I know when I see an engine bay where the plastic is ultra glossy and slick I move on to the next car.
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| # ? Aug 19, 2010 20:31 |
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My brother (who has my Integra) picked up the used AC condenser for me and delivered it yesterday along with the clutch cylinders for his Accord that I had left in the Integra. My neighbor came over last night and we installed the new (reman) clutch master and slave cylinders. We bled it using his Mightyvac and my air compressor. It was the first time I have used my air compressor in over a year, but it worked no problem. The clutch cylinders were replaced in this car maybe three years ago when my dad owned the car. It was the middle of winter and I had no garage so he had a shop do the work. They said they had a really hard time getting the clutch bled, but it was a piece of cake the way we did it. We let it gravity bleed while we ate dinner (my wife made crispy beef in an sesame orange sauce) then Mightyvac'd the system and then did one conventional bleed (pumping the clutch pedal and opening the bleeder valve) to make sure. I got up early this morning to finish the front and rear speaker install job I started on the Accord the other night. I got the fronts all done but I still have to put in the rear speakers. Those are easy so it shouldn't take long to finish. One of my wife's co-workers is bringing over a 2000 Honda CR-V for a timing belt and water pump job tonight. The trucklet has a bigger version of the motor that is in my Integra so it should be pretty familiar and straightforward. I have one of those crank holder tools for Honda, but I probably won't need it because I wield the power of impact. Yesterday I saw a craigslist ad for a used snow blower. The seller said he had a lot of calls on it and I was working so I asked my wife to go pick it up. It turned out to be bigger than I was expecting and wouldn't fit in the trunk of my wife's car. Not a bad deal for $50. The seller was selling all of his garage stuff because he is moving to Arizona.  Click here for the full 1536x2048 image. I dropped the Avalon off at the muffler shop this morning to fix the exhaust leak. The other Avalon I had sounded exactly the same and they fixed it for about $100. A couple of my friends can weld but no one has a welder. 
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| # ? Aug 20, 2010 15:02 |
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PBCrunch posted:Yesterday I saw a craigslist ad for a used snow blower. The seller said he had a lot of calls on it and I was working so I asked my wife to go pick it up. It turned out to be bigger than I was expecting and wouldn't fit in the trunk of my wife's car. Not a bad deal for $50. The seller was selling all of his garage stuff because he is moving to Arizona. Where do you live? That seems like a good price for $50, but it looks like kind of a pussy snowblower.
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| # ? Aug 20, 2010 15:34 |
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I live in Nebraska. It is a 5hp 2-stroke with a 22" wide path. It has a 139cc Tecumseh 2-stroke engine. My mom has a two-stroke Toro that is considerably smaller than this one and it is enough to get the job done unless it is REALLY snowing. The seller started it yesterday so I need to drain the tank and run the system out of gas so it doesn't get all skunky over the summer & fall. And now I am adding a front brake job on a newer Grand Prix for tomorrow morning.
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| # ? Aug 20, 2010 16:15 |
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I dunno how much snow Nebraska gets. I'm in Southen Ontario and am used to snowblowers that are more like 30" and have driven wheels. Like one of these
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| # ? Aug 20, 2010 16:28 |
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We had the worst winter I have experienced in my thirty years last winter. The most snow we ever got at any one time was about twelve inches. This winter it stayed really cold for a long time so the snow didn't melt away like it usually does. The last winter was bad enough that in the off-season I have bought a 4x4 Jeep Cherokee and a snowblower. I should start thinking about some kind of heater for the garage. My dad had a snowblower like the one in the picture when I was a kid. We had a house on a big corner lot so there was a shitload of sidewalk. I remember shoveling all the time because that goddam piece of poo poo snowblower would never run right.
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| # ? Aug 20, 2010 17:58 |
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PBCrunch posted:It is more like a Japanese Olds 88/98 since it is FWD and has a transverse six cylinder. Ever consider swapping your Integra's suspension for a stock Type R's? I got a low mileage 98-Spec ITR suspension (front springs/shocks, rear springs/shocks/LCAs and 23mm rear sway bar) for around $230 plus hardware and some welding to support the much larger sway bar and it handles very nicely with a 3/4" drop.
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| # ? Aug 20, 2010 22:43 |
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I don't like putting used dampers on anything. New OEM Honda stuff is pretty expensive. If I was going to drop that kind of coin it would be on Bilstein HD shocks. I had dropped the Avalon at the muffler shop this morning. They called and said the car had a bad flex pipe. I had them weld in a new one but it still sounds like the car has an exhaust leak so I dropped it off so they can fix it tomorrow morning. When I got home I finished installing the speakers in my brother's car. The wire colors in the doors did not match the wire colors listed in the information I had, so I had to pull the head unit out and pop the speakers using my drill battery. I had guessed correctly on both pairs of wires so it was kind of a waste of time. The car has aftermarket power locks connected to a remote start system. The actuator in the driver's door is broken and I want to fix it since the door cards are already removed. I put other several trim panels back on the car. They had been removed when I installed the remote start last winter (when the car was still mine) and I never put them back in. I also put in a center console from a nicer Accord that had a slide-out cup holder instead of no cup holder. Tomorrow I'm taking the car over to my friend's shop to replace the lock actuators and then put the door cards back in place. Then I can take the car back to my brother and get my Integra back. The CR-V came over tonight. I have the everything ready for the belt to come off. I need to go out and get either a DOHC cam lock tool or a pair of 5mm punch pins to hold the cams in place while I go about my business. Each cam has a little hole for a pin to hold it in place. Once I do that the belt should come off, five bolts hold the old water pump in, then I put in the new water pump, timing belt tensioner, timing belt, then just put all that other stuff back together.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2010 06:58 |
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Are Bilstein HDs noticeably stiffer? Does the ride quality suffer at all?
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| # ? Aug 22, 2010 01:44 |
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PBCrunch posted:Autopia is a pretty good website for information about technique. For cleaning cars for CL I wouldn't recommend spending the money on most of the high-end products they recommend. I generally stick to things I can get locally. In terms of clay barring what detailing spray do you use? i got a mothers clay bar kit with their detailing spray and i find it takes forever to work even a small section to buttery smoothness. also you dont dry the car off at all you just go straight into putting detail spray and clay bar?? Maybe thats what im doing wrong, i dry off the whole thing with the synthetic chamois then start clay barring it.. I remember checking out a used 98 GT that the guy entered into car shows with flawless paint that he clay barred and wax and being blown away by how smooth and flawless it looked (drat i wanted that car...). I basically just want to reach even half the smoothness of his paint. I bought some gold class meguiars wax that i want to try but i dont quite understand if the clay bar is supposed to make the surface extremely smooth or the wax is doing most of that. coolskillrex remix fucked around with this message at Aug 22, 2010 around 11:53 |
| # ? Aug 22, 2010 11:48 |
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Using a big clay bar helps with speed. The Griot's bar is 8 oz. The Mother's and Meguiar's bars are less than half that size. The Griot's bar is also nice and soft so it is pliable and easy to turn and knead. I really don't think the choice in detailing spray really matters. I have seen people use a mixture of car wash soap and water. I have seen other guys just clay the surface while allowing a hose to run plain water across the surface. It just has to be wet and slippery. That is why it is a total waste of time to dry the car before using the clay bar. As for the question about the Bilstein HDs; they are shocks. Shocks aren't really stiff or soft, they have different damping rates. High rate dampers like the BHDs can dissipate the energy from high rate springs better than regular shocks can. That's why a cheap regular shock doesn't hold up when used with a stiff spring. Its low rate can't keep up with the fast energy release of a really stiff spring. Long and short a high rate shock makes a car with stiff springs bounce fewer times after hitting a bump and hold up better when used with stiff springs. Plus Bilstein will rebuild your shocks when needed. For most applications they can be rebuilt with custom specs. PBCrunch fucked around with this message at Aug 22, 2010 around 12:54 |
| # ? Aug 22, 2010 12:50 |
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| # ? May 21, 2013 18:47 |
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Yes, but shocks with too high a rate will limit a spring's travel. I assumed you'd be pairing them with OE springs as well.
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| # ? Aug 22, 2010 13:42 |
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