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I don't really have a reason to post a thread, other than maybe to keep track of my own projects. I'm not a mechanic and have very limited knowledge in a lot of areas. I work as an engineer and get paid good money, and have a nice house in a nice neighborhood (without an HOA!) and two kids. I like to play videogames. I don't have a lot of time for vehicular projects, nor the room really. And yet I have six vehicles, all able to move under their own power. My wife will only drive one. So as an individual, I have five. I don't need five. I'm not really sentimental about any of them. But I like them, each for their own reason. Number 1: I'll start with my wife's car. It's a pretty run of the mill 2015 Ford Focus 5-speed. It's great. Hatchback provides a lot of utility, the five-speed makes it fun enough to drive, and it gets nearly 40mpg on the highway. It's a Titanium, which is the highest trim level before you start getting into the ST and RS models, so it has heated leather seats and stuff. It's more than adequate.    Number 2: My own daily driver is a 2016 Dodge Challenger R/T. 5.7L V8. It's a fat pig but comfortable and sounds great. It's quick enough to put a smile on my face but not so quick that it'll get me in trouble. My preferred road trip car, because nothing beats that big rumbling V8 up front, not even the much-worse fuel economy. 6-speed, of course.    But now we start getting into the "why the hell do you own this" territory... Number 3: 1997 Volvo 850 N/A 5-speed. 2.4L whiteblock inline-five.   Why do I own this? This was my wife's daily for years after we sold her MINI Cooper. After she bought a Ford Fiesta many years ago, I never really had a reason to get rid of it. I paid $2500 for it in the summer of 2009 so I've had it for eight and a half years. It runs well and is my winter beater. I have some studded snow tires for it and in bad weather it's nearly unstoppable. What does it need? Well, the parking brake doesn't work because when I did the rear brakes long ago, I broke a clip in the drum and even though I have the part, have never gotten around to fixing it. It has been misfiring on every cylinder for awhile, even though just a few months ago I replaced all the plugs and wires. Runs fine though other than the CEL. It could use a timing belt, which I also have. I had it replaced last about 5-6 years ago. Probably take care of that in the summer, along with front brakes. There is something wrong with the radio and I have to keep the fuse pulled when I'm not driving or it'll kill the battery in a day or two. The normal, non-winter tires are in awful condition and need to be replaced when the winters come off. Number 4: 2000 Mazda B2500, aka a Ford Ranger with a Mazda badge. 2.5L pinto inline-four engine, 5-speed manual.    Why do I own this? After buying a house, I realized I needed a truck to do truck things. I had a bunch of cement I needed to haul away, and furniture I needed to haul home. I paid $800 for this truck and I love it more than I should. It is the ultra base model - I think it was a fleet truck - and it doesn't have A/C, cruise control, power anything, not even a rear defroster. I put a bedliner in it (I found an actual Mazda one at the local junkyard), a better bumper on it, and have replaced the starter and the tires. It is easy to work on and parts are hilariously cheap. What does it need? It could use a timing belt as well (non-interference engine thankfully) and a thermostat. The tie rods and front suspension are shot. Everything is very rusty. The vinyl bench seat is torn pretty badly. I don't know how old the battery is. I've taken care of the important things, though, and I'm pretty happy with the truck as it sits right now. Number 5: 1986 Porsche 944 n/a. 2.5L four-cylinder, 5-speed manual    Why do I own this? I always wanted a 944. I drove two hours to buy this last summer and paid $2800 for it. Tires are nearly new and it had just under 98,000 miles on it. Interior is clean as hell. I originally wanted a shittier one so I could have a cheap fun car that I didn't care about this, but because of the low miles and good overall condition I am treating this nicer than I planned on. It's currently stored in a heated garage for the winter. It's slow but I love how it handles. It's kind of the antithesis to my Challenger. As soon as I bought it I paid to have the timing belt replaced along with all other belts, front end seals, pulleys, etc. What does it need? Minor things really. Hatch struts, the outer shift boot. The A/C doesn't work and I don't plan on fixing that, but the heat also doesn't work well and I need to look into that. It idles like garbage when you first start it up and it's worse when it's cold out. Number 6: 1999 Jeep Cherokee 4x4. 4.0L inline six, automatic.    Why do I own this? Good question. I've always wanted a Cherokee with the 4.0 but certainly didn't have a reason to buy one. Then a friend needed one out of his driveway because he was moving. This hadn't budged in a year and hadn't started in months. He wanted fifty bucks for it. So of course I said I'd take it. Threw a new battery in and drove away. Engine and transmission work great, 4-wheel drive works great. What does it need? A lot. This one is really more project than anything else, even though it runs and drives. The body is decent, though the rockers are rusty. The brakes are awful - I almost drove through my garage door when I got home because I couldn't stop. The hood latch cable broke after I brought it home. The front tires are bald. The rear hatch needs struts. The driver's door opens kind of funny and the passenger door doesn't lock. Neither front window works. The driver's seat frame is cracked. The front bumper is damaged pretty badly. It doesn't have a radio. The A/C doesn't work. The wiper blades are trashed. Um... I'm sure there's more. A lot of that I don't care about, a lot I plan on fixing over time. The brakes, tires and hood latch are the most important things right now. I like them all and I think they all have their own interesting history and place in my life. Normally they're all plated and insured, though right now with the weather and me not wanting to park anything on the street for the plow to hit, the truck is parked and the insurance suspended and the Porsche is stored and has only comprehensive on it. The Jeep will probably sit, unplated and uninsured, until at least spring. I find it amusing that four of those cost less than $3k, and two of them less than $1k.  My wife is less than thrilled but she's been a good sport. Although she probably thinks I have a mental illness or several. I'll be honest, just keeping track of the keys is a bitch, let alone deciding which one I want to drive to work and where to park them at home. CornHolio fucked around with this message at 19:28 on Jan 10, 2018 |
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Jan 10, 2018 19:25
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I like your pieces of poo poo. I think the max at any time I've ever hit was five, and storage became a worryingly large portion of my daily life. Not gonna do that again until I have an acreage or something.
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Jan 10, 2018 21:30
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Seat Safety Switch posted:I like your pieces of poo poo. I think the max at any time I've ever hit was five, and storage became a worryingly large portion of my daily life. Not gonna do that again until I have an acreage or something. Thankfully I have a little pad on the side of my driveway that is flat and perfect for working on stuff, or just parking. Plus after I moved in here I installed a big double-gate in my backyard, and don't mind parking stuff back there if I have to. It's normally padlocked and the rest of my yard is fenced in, and I haven't had any problems yet. My daughter turns 16 in six years, and I don't think she'd want any of my pieces of poo poo... I think I'll cross that bridge when I get there and see how many of these are still running at that point.
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Jan 10, 2018 21:43
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I love the Mazda. As soon as I buy a house, I’m buying a 90s Ranger to run back and forth to the hardware store with. It’s become this bizarre instinctive desire since my first kid was born.
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Jan 10, 2018 21:52
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A summary of the car-related things I did today, since I didn't go into work due to a sick child: - had the battery that came out of the Jeep tested by Autozone. They say it's good. We will see. - had an officer of the law come do a VIN inspection on the Jeep, which is required because it had an out of state title. He liked it. - did title paperwork and ordered a plate through the BMV - since where I am storing the Porsche right across the street from the BMV, I checked on it. It's still there, parked two over from a sweet sixties Mustang. Battery is holding voltage fine while it's disconnected. I'd have taken the Porsche out but I pulled collision insurance off for the winter. Nothing exciting, though I may end up driving the Jeep a little bit sooner than I thought. I wasn't going to plate it, but if I don't within 45 days of purchase I have to pay a fee, so I may as well just do it. Dadliest Worrier posted:I love the Mazda. As soon as I buy a house, I’m buying a 90s Ranger to run back and forth to the hardware store with. It’s become this bizarre instinctive desire since my first kid was born. Seriously, I love that truck. I beat the poo poo out of it and it just works. I mean, there isn't much to break on it, but still. It's surprisingly fun to drive with the 5-speed.
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Jan 10, 2018 23:30
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I would love to have a base Ranger 2.5/B2500 w/5 speed, though I'd prefer AC (because Texas). Not as a daily driver, but it'd be really nice to have for hauling poo poo. And a backup vehicle is always nice to have.
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Jan 11, 2018 04:47
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When I was a kid, my Dad had a Ford Ranger, 4cyl, short cab, white with a pinstripe down the side and a manual transmission whose shifter was the longest I'd ever seen in a car. I've wanted a base model Ranger/B-series since then. Love those little trucks.
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Jan 11, 2018 12:36
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Man the 944 interior is mint.
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Jan 11, 2018 14:17
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Very nice collection, lots of cars that I've always liked a lot. Those 850s are tanks and if I had to do it all over again I'd buy an NA 855 with a stick, because I'd probably still be driving it instead of parting it out and scrapping it next weekend.
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Jan 11, 2018 17:17
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Terrible Robot posted:Very nice collection, lots of cars that I've always liked a lot. Those 850s are tanks and if I had to do it all over again I'd buy an NA 855 with a stick, because I'd probably still be driving it instead of parting it out and scrapping it next weekend. I really wish the turbo models had been available in the states with the 5-speed. I think maybe the S70 or V70s were but I'm not 100% on that. I would really like a V70 Cross-Country with a turbo and AWD. I love the look of them.
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Jan 11, 2018 19:51
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I still got dibs on that Jeep when you get tired of it.
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Jan 12, 2018 01:11
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CornHolio posted:I really wish the turbo models had been available in the states with the 5-speed. I think maybe the S70 or V70s were but I'm not 100% on that. I would really like a V70 Cross-Country with a turbo and AWD. I love the look of them. S/V/C70s could be had with a stick but they were sold in extremely low numbers. I love them but they are maintenance queens and a V70 turbo awd is the most demanding of the lot. Love my 5 speed C70 T5 to death though.
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Jan 12, 2018 02:01
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Rhyno posted:I still got dibs on that Jeep when you get tired of it. I've... ah... already been looking at cheap winches and lights...
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Jan 12, 2018 03:02
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CornHolio posted:I've... ah... already been looking at cheap winches and lights... Oh come on, you got so many cars already.
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Jan 12, 2018 03:39
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Rhyno posted:Oh come on, you got so many cars already. Pot, meet Kettle.
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Jan 12, 2018 15:29
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Nice collection you have there. Agree that everyone needs a truck for truck stuff. On the 944 is the hvac all vacuum operated? I had no temp control on the 928, was due to a couple vacuum leaks and a failed vacuum brain thing. That interior looks amazing
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Jan 12, 2018 17:08
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BloodBag posted:Pot, meet Kettle. I only have two right now! And one is for sale!
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Jan 12, 2018 17:42
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NitroSpazzz posted:Nice collection you have there. Agree that everyone needs a truck for truck stuff. I think on the heat at least there is a cable that becomes detached from the valve on the coolant line. I've read that it's a pretty common problem and you just have to replace a few clips, but they're on the firewall and not easy to get to. The weird thing is I sometimes have a burst of heat and then it goes cold again, so I'unno.
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Jan 12, 2018 19:28
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Clogged up heater core? One that's occasionally getting a bit of coolant through could do that.
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Jan 13, 2018 12:58
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Can that mazda fit a standard 8'x4' sheet in the back?
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Jan 13, 2018 17:58
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I live by myself and have 3 vehicles (02 wrx wagon 92 civic hatch 04 chevy blazer gently caress trunks hatch fleet  ), I totally understand the beater fleet. Do you ever realize you've only driven one of them for like, two months? I do that more often that I'd like to admit with mine.Whats the next upgrade you have planned? I have to fix the door check on my wrx and reseal the hatch hinges on my civic.
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Jan 13, 2018 20:31
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Breakfast Feud posted:Can that mazda fit a standard 8'x4' sheet in the back? Only with the tailgate down. It has a six foot bed I believe. Ardemia posted:I live by myself and have 3 vehicles (02 wrx wagon 92 civic hatch 04 chevy blazer gently caress trunks hatch fleet I try to cycle through them during the spring/summer/fall to make sure they all get driven. The Challenger is my daily but I try to take one or two other cars during the week too, especially if the weather is bad. Not because I don't want to get the Challenger dirty or anything, more because if there's hail, I want it to damage a car I don't give a poo poo about. I'll usually pull the Porsche into the garage too in place of my wife's car if they're saying that's a possibility. I don't really have any upgrades planned per se, more just getting the Jeep running well enough to drive it often and new not-winter tires for the Volvo. Maybe engine/transmission mounts for the Porsche, I think there's some movement going on when I let off the throttle. CornHolio fucked around with this message at 23:04 on Jan 14, 2018 |
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Jan 14, 2018 23:01
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CornHolio posted:Only with the tailgate down. It has a six foot bed I believe. Nice! My biggest gripe with my stepside ranger was that the box was too narrow to fit a standard sheet. Moving drywall around was a real pain.
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Jan 15, 2018 03:31
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CornHolio posted:I've... ah... already been looking at cheap winches and lights...  Only a matter of time.
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Jan 15, 2018 06:44
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I cleaned out the interior a bit and checked/topped off the fluids that were low. Went to the local junkyard to see what they had and they only had two Cherokees, one picked through and the other thoroughly demolished in an accident. Plenty of Grand Cherokees though, and I understand the seats are a direct swap.    Not bad for fifty bucks. The driver's seat is hilariously bad though. Without the rear seat folded forward to somewhat support it, it's bad.   These are going to be fun to get out: 
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Jan 22, 2018 16:19
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So earlier this week I picked my kids up from school in the Volvo and as I left, it felt like one of the wheels was dragging. I pulled over thinking I had a flat, but all of the tires looked fine. Drove home, looked around, my front right wheel had smoke coming from the caliper and was super hot. When I jacked it up and put the car in neutral it wouldn't budge. New caliper time!   It was actually the first caliper I'd ever replaced, and the first time I had ever bled brakes. The brake line fitting was just threads into the caliper so I had to rotate the entire nine pound caliper to thread it onto the fitting. Kind of silly and I'm told most aren't like that, but whatever. If I were smarter I would have replaced the front pads and rotors (they need it but it isn't super critical or anything) but with the winter season coming to an end in the next couple of months and how few miles I'm going to be putting on it, it's going to be fine until at least fall. CornHolio fucked around with this message at 15:44 on Feb 16, 2018 |
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Feb 16, 2018 15:33
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CornHolio posted:It was actually the first caliper I'd ever replaced, and the first time I had ever bled brakes. The brake line fitting was just threads into the caliper so I had to rotate the entire nine pound caliper to thread it onto the fitting. Kind of silly and I'm told most aren't like that, but whatever. And you own how many old cars? Brake fluid usually is only good for 2-3 years, mr. bad car owner. Yes it'll still work but will have absorbed moisture by then most likely. The lines either thread right into the caliper or use a banjo bolt, negating need to spin to
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Feb 16, 2018 17:25
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Larrymer posted:And you own how many old cars? Brake fluid usually is only good for 2-3 years, mr. bad car owner. Yes it'll still work but will have absorbed moisture by then most likely. Honestly I usually pay somebody to bleed the brakes. I'm scared to death of the bleed screw rounding off. Everything is rusty around here. The Porsche has fresh brake fluid as of December. The truck had a new brake line going to the rear put in a couple years ago, so at least some of the fluid is newer...
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Feb 16, 2018 19:17
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CornHolio posted:Honestly I usually pay somebody to bleed the brakes. I'm scared to death of the bleed screw rounding off. Everything is rusty around here. Fair enough. If it rounds/breaks off you're usually still ok, you just need a new caliper or (bleed screw only if you're lucky and can get it out) but it won't leak on you. I'm in the rust belt too and usually use a box end vs a flare wrench to get them started to help prevent that. It helps but doesn't work all the time.
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Feb 16, 2018 20:46
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Larrymer posted:Fair enough. If it rounds/breaks off you're usually still ok, you just need a new caliper or (bleed screw only if you're lucky and can get it out) but it won't leak on you. I'm in the rust belt too and usually use a box end vs a flare wrench to get them started to help prevent that. It helps but doesn't work all the time. Worth replacing the screws with Speed Bleeders too, makes bleeding brakes by yourself sooooo much easier
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Feb 17, 2018 16:52
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CornHolio posted:I cleaned out the interior a bit and checked/topped off the fluids that were low. Went to the local junkyard to see what they had and they only had two Cherokees, one picked through and the other thoroughly demolished in an accident. Plenty of Grand Cherokees though, and I understand the seats are a direct swap. If I pick up a beater off road toy it might be a ZJ, they don't rust to hell and at this point there's more floating around for parts than XJs, at least around me. Plus crappy V8 sounds fun. I'm envious your wife deals with the collection, I have two and she's annoyed. Good thing its almost spring, the Miata is getting depressed waiting in the garage.
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Feb 18, 2018 23:19
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TACTICAL SANDALS posted:Worth replacing the screws with Speed Bleeders too, makes bleeding brakes by yourself sooooo much easier True story, everything I've owned for the last 10 years has gotten them in the brake calipers and clutch slave cylinders. Also, if you overtorque the loving things they don't leak because they break above the ball bearing valve.   Some people complain about them not being able to properly bleed after a few times... that's because you need to re-threadseal them and bake em in the over, as it says in the instructions. In-place fix to this is to put some grease around the bleeder on the caliper, bleed, and clean the grease off.
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Feb 18, 2018 23:43
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BlackMK4 posted:True story, everything I've owned for the last 10 years has gotten them in the brake calipers and clutch slave cylinders. Also, if you overtorque the loving things they don't leak because they break above the ball bearing valve. I tried a set once and they leaked around the bleeder on the first go. Now I just grab my wife and tell her what to do (for once).
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Feb 19, 2018 02:04
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BlackMK4 posted:Some people complain about them not being able to properly bleed after a few times... that's because you need to re-threadseal them and bake em in the over, as it says in the instructions. In-place fix to this is to put some grease around the bleeder on the caliper, bleed, and clean the grease off. I was wondering why one of mine stopped working. Never had any instructions with them due to ebay copyness. Cheers!
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Feb 19, 2018 17:17
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CornHolio posted:I work as an engineer and get paid good money, and have a nice house in a nice neighborhood (without an HOA!) and two kids. Wow dude, lot has changed since a decade (!) has gone by. Many props. I've often floated between 3 and 7 vehicles. I say you're doing fine.
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Feb 19, 2018 17:23
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I seem to have gotten into a small kerfluffle with a semi truck It was my fault. I was following a semi that was going very slowly (10mph) down the road, they turned left on the street I was turning onto and they slowed nearly to a stop on the shoulder. I decided they must be pulling over and went to go around them on the left, but they were actually making an immediate left into a business right there at the intersection. I was committed, they hit me. No damage to their truck, looks like I need a new taillight. Purely a misread on my part, I should have just waited to verify they were pulling over (trucks do pull over there pretty regularly to figure out where they're delivering to). The truck driver wasn't even mad, just basically all "you dumbass" and we went our separate ways.
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Feb 23, 2018 15:04
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Olympic Mathlete posted:I was wondering why one of mine stopped working. Never had any instructions with them due to ebay copyness. Cheers! I might have to look into ebay as no worthwhile distributors here - just some speed shop in mildura and if like any one shop distributor they are probably useless and never reply or ar a rip off in price or postage- looking at you ppc co  Looking to do pads, rotors and lines on my car soon - may as well look into these too. Fo3 fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Feb 23, 2018 |
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Feb 23, 2018 17:36
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It was actually in the forties on Friday, and I had the day off, so I got to work on the Jeep! I replaced the hood latch, whose cable had snapped. Protip: Fish some stiff wire through the hole from the engine side, tie it to the cable and pull it through. It's impossible to get it through from the interior.     Also lubed everything up pretty good. It rained Saturday and was cold as poo poo and threatening to snow yesterday so I'm glad I was able to get some poo poo done finally on Friday. I've been itching to work on the Jeep ever since I bought it.
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Apr 2, 2018 14:07
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Yesterday I decided to pull out the broken driver's seat in the Jeep and replace it with the junkyard seat I purchased, which was a manual seat out of a Grand Cherokee of similar vintage. It was a bit more difficult than it should have been. First one of the bolts broke (because of course) and I had to cut it away. The others came out without a problem. Then, I realized the Grand Cherokee seat didn't have a seat belt attached and I couldn't figure out where it should mount - it's apparently different. So I decided to create a hybrid seat, with the lower powered section from the old seat (which was not broken) with the upper part from the Grand Cherokee.   You can see here how badly the seat was broken. It pulled through the thin metal in three of the four locations.   I shop-vacced the hell out of the inside (and found about another five dollars worth of change) before installing the new seat. Turns out, the seat is wider than the old seat and I had to remove the side trim to install it. It still crashes against the inside of the Jeep when I move the seat back on its tracks, but it's secure now and functional (even though it doesn't look as nice as I'd have liked).   
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Apr 23, 2018 14:53
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If you keep it running, the 850 will be an excellent starter car for the daughter. Still safer than many other cars by a wide margin, and obviously cheap enough. Has enough power but not too much. No worries if it gets dinged up by other high schoolers. And if it gets wrecked or the engine dies you can yank the manual parts and hunt down a T5 with a blown automatic. Then you'll have the turbo 5 speed you always wanted. If you have the whole parts car it's really easy to see where everything goes and it all bolts in. I love the 944, great color. I'm amazed at the price. I'd have guessed even beaters would be in the $10k range.
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Apr 23, 2018 15:43
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