Car Enthusiast Club [Now Motorcycle friendly!] - First thread to 150k! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Bitter]

I'm no expert but I don't think that's how speakers work.

[TVwazhere]

I'm on team "Headlights are too bright" especially those that don't properly push the low beams down into the road rather than up into the eyes of other drivers. I used to think this was just an issue with owners changing out perfectly working bulbs for cheap LED headlights that scatter light everywhere, but my friends new (2020) Toyota corolla definitely has the cutoff be basically horizontal with the hood of the car instead of tilted down at the road. 

 

When shopping for new fog lights I was scared to go LED, but I found good ones that are designed to worlk with my weirdly shaped rectangular ones (Diode Dynamics) and even have a yellow option. 

[TVwazhere]

@Real_PhillBert @NinJake don't know if you guys still have your ST's but be prepared to potentially have to replace your master clutch cylinder if you haven't already. 

 

 

In hindsight this job wasn't the absolute worst. Taking out the air box and battery box is annoying but doable. The bolts holding the pedal assembly are a little hard to get to but with the right(very long) extensions and a universal joint, they'll come out. 

(Yes I need to clean my interior) 

 

Be careful not to break the sensors (like I did) sadly the top sensor is impossible to install on the bracket before reinstalling it on the car, so you gotta put the new assembly in first, then install the top sensor with your arm elbow deep into the dash from underneath. 

 

Worst part for me was bleeding the clutch. I had no pressure in the clutch bleeding it all the "normal" ways, and even renting a vacuum bleeder pump until I ordered a power bleeder for the brake fluid resevior. 

 

All in all, worst project I've ever had to do in the car, but I knew that going into this so I made sure to take breaks from being back down with my head under the dash for extended periods of time. 

[Bitter]

So how's everyone's day going?

[NinJake]

@TVwazhere Yep... still loving the ST as my daily driver! What were the warning signs that you had to replace this? Awesome to see you still have yours running as well! I also put in some weathertech floor mats throughout the vehicle. I frequently end up out in the rain/snow/mud while disc golfing/hiking and no matter how much I try to stomp the crud out, I (and others) always manage to trace that stuff back in the vehicle. It's very handy to just pop out the mats for a thorough cleaning.

 

Spoiler

 

[TVwazhere]

1 hour ago, NinJake said:

 What were the warning signs that you had to replace this?

Brake fluid in the foot well and/or squeaky clutch. Pedal feel is fine, but it just slowly leak into the cabin. Admittedly I let mine go for too Long (December - March) but at least it's not a "change it or you'll literally blow your engine in 0.37 seconds"

[Bitter]

1 hour ago, TVwazhere said:

Brake fluid in the foot well and/or squeaky clutch. Pedal feel is fine, but it just slowly leak into the cabin. Admittedly I let mine go for too Long (December - March) but at least it's not a "change it or you'll literally blow your engine in 0.37 seconds"

Did the fluid soaked into the carpet and eat the paint under it?

[TVwazhere]

5 minutes ago, Bitter said:

Did the fluid soaked into the carpet and eat the paint under it?

No, thankfully. The rubber mats caught it all I believe (the carpet wasn't wet at any point)

 

I've been careful to try not to let any break fluid linger on any surface or touch the paint ever. Dont need holes behind the gas pedal lol

[Bitter]

13 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

No, thankfully. The rubber mats caught it all I believe (the carpet wasn't wet at any point)

 

I've been careful to try not to let any break fluid linger on any surface or touch the paint ever. Dont need holes behind the gas pedal lol

Lucky lucky! If you pre-wet the area or lay soaked wet rags down it helps a lot.

[vetali]

23 hours ago, Bitter said:

So how's everyone's day going?

Mark cabin filter inspection green, close glovebox.

[Bitter]

42 minutes ago, vetali said:

Mark cabin filter inspection green, close glovebox.

I wish.

Nissan SUV just suddenly appeared overnight with an absolutely shredded R/R tire. Just a key. No note, not call, no information at all in the vehicle. They called at noon "is it done?" Is what done? "my car" Which car? "the nissan?" Which Nissan? "the one with the tire!" ...No it's not done, who are you? "I'm the owner, it's supposed to be done this morning!" We open at 9, you called at noon "No you're 24 hours!" No no we are not open 24 hours "The tow was taking it to a 24 hours for my tire" Even if we were open 24 hours we would have had no way to get a hold of you to approve repairs or tell you if the wheel is bent. "My wheel is bent?!?" We haven't looked at it yet. "why not! It's been there all night!" We weren't open, we had no contact information, we don't touch anything without owner permission. "so I gotta pay another hunded n fifty to tow it somewhere 24 hours!" We can look at it but we need your information and we do charge a diag fee to look at it. "look at what? it's just a tire you can see that" Sir the tire is shredded and bare wheel is touching the ground, you drove on it flat we don't know if you damaged the wheel, tire pressure sensor, suspension, etc. "I DID NOT DROVE ON IT FLAT"

 

On and on like that. As she's wrapping up the call like 15 minutes later "so how much the warranty pay for it?" Excuse me? "my warranty, I got warranty on it" Ok which company, what's your contract number, and what's the claim dept number? "I don't know just tell me how much they gonna pay" *she explains how a warranty claim works* "so its gonna be done before you close?"

At this point she's getting a little red in the face with this guy. Told him that it would take up to 48 hours for the claims process with the warranty company to go through and we couldn't start until we had the needed information. Guy hangs up but we had permission to at least look at the car.

 

So onto fuck up #2. Tell newbie to pull it in, take the wheel off, spin it on the balancer by hand to check for bends and make sure all 4 TPMS work. New guy dismounts the shredded tire. We need that rack for an alignment. I ask him if anyone told him to take the tire off the rim and after a long pause "uhhhh....no?" We have exactly ONE 18" tire, it's a low profile with a VERY hard sidewall we use to set engines and transmissions on. I help newbie mount it on the wheel so we can clear the rack. Car looks like when you put the tiniest wheels on in Mario Kart.

 

It's now several hours later after lunch. Owner calls in with warranty info, call claims, claims needs tread depth on the shredded tire, depth is acceptable, they pay for one tire. Won't pay for the two bald tires up front at I shit you now 2/32nds. Told front desk if they want to be a dick call the cops to ticket him for bald tires, that's illegal in our state. Front desk says they'll see how the guy is when he picks up. Guy of course only gets the single tire that warranty pays for. Fuck it, Nissan AWD can handle 3 tires with different tread depths, not my problem.

[wONKEyeYEs]

I'm a cyclist, don't care much about cars.

But I thought this was funny, I have been pulled over for speeding in the past.

 

[vetali]

3 hours ago, Bitter said:

I wish.

Nissan SUV

All I needed to know it was a meth mobile.

 

Warranty companies and tires/wheel issues are a nightmare.

[BiG StroOnZ]

Who wins in a V.S. match, top or bottom?

[HM-2]

Managed to put a bulge in one of my rear sidewalls so new rear tyres.

 

 

Annoying as I'm planning on replacing the wheels pretty soon, but I should at least be able to run the current rear 255/35 R19s on the front with 275/30 out back. 

 

Likely going for Japan Racing SL01 flow-formed in 8.5x19 ET33 front and 9.5x19 ET42 rear. 9kg and 9.6kg a corner respectively instead of 16 for the OEM wheels. 

 

So far its stock other than:

• M Performance slotted and grooved disks
• M Performance pads
• M Performance LSD
• xHP Stage 2 gearbox map
• "Hot climate" intake mod
• OEM M3 shift paddles
• Koni Active Red shocks on OE springs 

I've got a painted M Performance style spoiler in the garage to go on but not fitted it yet. Will probably go Stage 2 (map + high flow cat) at some point for ~460bhp. Would also quite like the M Performance splitter, diffuser and side skirts in carbon fibre. 

[vf1000ride]

The joy of being a single guy.  Doing a major service on my motorcycle in my Dinning room. 

The 18K mile service is due on my Multistrada.  $900 in parts so far and only half way done.  Chain, sprockets, air/fuel/oil filters, new spark plugs and some gaskets.  Took the rear axle out and checked/re-greased the rear bearings.  Have the valve covers off and the valves need adjusting, that will be tomorrows project to pull the cams and re-shim everything.

[711jrp]

22 hours ago, vf1000ride said:

The joy of being a single guy.  Doing a major service on my motorcycle in my Dinning room. 

The 18K mile service is due on my Multistrada.  $900 in parts so far and only half way done.  Chain, sprockets, air/fuel/oil filters, new spark plugs and some gaskets.  Took the rear axle out and checked/re-greased the rear bearings.  Have the valve covers off and the valves need adjusting, that will be tomorrows project to pull the cams and re-shim everything.

Nice,,,,, Pikes Peak? I just got a 1200s but not ridden it yet

[vf1000ride]

1 hour ago, 711jrp said:

Nice,,,,, Pikes Peak? I just got a 1200s but not ridden it yet

Yep, 2016 Pikes Peak.  Got the cams out and pulled all the shims to measure them and figure out what the new sizes I need.  Here's the latest photo with everything pulled out.  Hopefully tomorrow night I can start getting things put back in.  Can't say I like holding the valves in place with zip ties.

[Bitter]

16 hours ago, vf1000ride said:

Yep, 2016 Pikes Peak.  Got the cams out and pulled all the shims to measure them and figure out what the new sizes I need.  Here's the latest photo with everything pulled out.  Hopefully tomorrow night I can start getting things put back in.  Can't say I like holding the valves in place with zip ties.

Held the timing chain up in my 2ZZ-GE with a coat hanger and zip tie when I had the cams out to do the lift bolts ages ago, worked out fine.

[Bitter]

Once you notice what Chrysler cup holders sort of look like you never don't see it.

[vetali]

7 hours ago, Bitter said:

Once you notice what Chrysler cup holders sort of look like you never don't see it.

Use them to put your dune popcorn bucket in.

[iBabySlapper]

A Vauxhall Meriva VXR (also known as Opel Meriva OPC) has popped up for sale near me, for not that much money.

 

VXR Vauxhalls are the hot version of their cars, and this has 180bhp, which might not sound like much, but this thing weighs under 1300kg/2870lbs. It also has a 6MT. While the box is probably a GM M32 judging by the age, which is a pretty bad box afaik (I heard some people use a specific Fuchs MTF that apparently helps the M32 a lot), but it's a manual none the less.

 

Now, I never knew they made a hot version of the meriva, I'd never seen one before. According to the govt. database, only 251 came to the country, and there are only 166 still either taxed or SORN (not taxed, but not recorded as scrapped).

 

Exterior looks pretty good, it's got the factory Recaro Style seats, interior is a bit dirty..

 

I kinda really want this car, even though I'll probably never have kids, much less a partner. Something about a hot version of such a boring, normal car attracts me.. Opels of this era are kinda like cockroaches, in that they just won't die, so it'll probably be fairly dependable too.

[Beerzerker]

On 3/9/2024 at 10:45 AM, Bitter said:

I wish.

Nissan SUV just suddenly appeared overnight with an absolutely shredded R/R tire. Just a key. No note, not call, no information at all in the vehicle. They called at noon "is it done?" Is what done? "my car" Which car? "the nissan?" Which Nissan? "the one with the tire!" ..........

This reminded me of what happened at a place I used to work at moving mobile homes.

At one time back in the fall of 95, someone was calling the office over the course of a few days wanting to schedule getting one taken down, moved elsewhere and then set up again.

Since the boss was also doing his share of the work out in the field with us (Working boss/owner of the company) naturally he wasn't in the office, instead he would check the answering machine for any messages and follow up when we got back in from a job.

Never really had any problems with that up until this incident and bear in mind this was back in the 90's so it's not like it is today concerning contacting someone.

This person after a few days got REALLY snarky, cursed him out and even reported him to the BBB and the state regulatory for mobile homes because he would never return their call........

Actually the boss coudn't return the call...... And that was because the dumbass that was calling always failed to follow simple instructions about "Please leave your name, number and a brief message".
Guess what they never provided?

Long story short, that one was tossed & flushed like toilet paper since my boss did save the recording of each and every call this person made - And I guess they never got it moved either because we sure didn't do it.

[atxcyclist]

On 3/20/2024 at 10:06 PM, vf1000ride said:

The joy of being a single guy.  Doing a major service on my motorcycle in my Dinning room. 

The 18K mile service is due on my Multistrada.  $900 in parts so far and only half way done.  Chain, sprockets, air/fuel/oil filters, new spark plugs and some gaskets.  Took the rear axle out and checked/re-greased the rear bearings.  Have the valve covers off and the valves need adjusting, that will be tomorrows project to pull the cams and re-shim everything.

 

 

 

 

 

Damn, the service on those really is quite involved! Is the chain and sprocket replacement just a factory service interval due to materials, or did you see wear?

I have a couple of smaller motorcycles, a Honda CB500F and a Grom, The Grom doesn’t have many miles on it yet but I did have to do my chain on the 500 at roughly 34k miles; The front and rear sprockets are steel and showed almost no appreciable wear though.

 

i always loved the Multistrada but I’m short AF with a 28” inseam, and there’s just no hope of me straddling something that tall in my daily commute. 

[vf1000ride]

56 minutes ago, atxcyclist said:

Damn, the service on those really is quite involved! Is the chain and sprocket replacement just a factory service interval due to materials, or did you see wear?

I have a couple of smaller motorcycles, a Honda CB500F and a Grom, The Grom doesn’t have many miles on it yet but I did have to do my chain on the 500 at roughly 34k miles; The front and rear sprockets are steel and showed almost no appreciable wear though.

 

i always loved the Multistrada but I’m short AF with a 28” inseam, and there’s just no hope of me straddling something that tall in my daily commute. 

 

Chain and sprockets were original to the bike and were starting to show signs of age.  The sprockets didn't look too worn but I had two links in the chain that wanted to stay kinked when coming off the forward sprocket as you rolled the wheel around.  You could get them to pull straight if you worked them but it is just the first sign the o-rings had gone bad and it wasn't moving as free as it should have been.  It was just time so I don't have to deal with it in another month or two once the weather finally starts to warm up here in Ohio.