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

[arnavvr]

15 minutes ago, bcredeur97 said:

there's a bunch of roads in cali i want to do. All the canyons north of LA, PCH, and especially hwy 33 north of ventura, little lesser known but they say it's awesome.

33 is pretty overrated imo. Yeah, it's a nice road, but the scenery isn't exactly jaw-dropping.

 

There are some roads in the eastern part of the state that are pretty nice. 

 

This one, for example: 

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.0459116,-119.9484592,3a,75y,203.48h,77.51t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sIVq_tBmA5qyw3rGBj_govQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

 

[JoaoPRSousa]

Pretty much just bought my dream spec first car for my first car. An E34 525i Touring, no VANOS engine, 5 speed.

 

(ignore the red bubbles on the rear hatch, those were caused by the phone, need to reflash it)

 

Interior and exterior wise it's far from being my dream spec, but I'll work on that. When buying used cars from 1992 you can't be too picky xD

 

Black leather interior (actually in pretty good condition the interior, for a 400k km car), SUNROOF WORKS, 4 electric windows and the steering wheel's so big I feel like I'm driving a bus (not far from the truth), and the steering column not being adjustable doesn't help it either (there's a lever but releasing it doesn't let me do anything). Clutch is pretty heavy, need to figure out what's going on there, brakes only grab at like half pedal travel too, throttle is touchy af and the cable was replaced recently so I wonder wtf the previous owner did with it (or I'm just used to dirty turdobiesels, but I've driven other NA petrol cars and they didn't feel like this so idk). Need to wire the fans, thing's running passive for now lmao. No cats from the factory, thing sounds sooooooooooooooooo goooooooooooooooooooood.

 

Shocks have also been replaced recently so it is damn comfortable, but I still hear some creaking coming from the suspension/underside, need to check that out too. Shifter moves around a bit when not pressing on the throttle, I believe one of the mounts might be busted, if not an engine mount.

 

All in all, it was pretty cheap (one of the cheapest E34s listed here) and has some flaws which I am totally ok with since I plan on fixing most of them myself. It's nothing that prevents me from driving it other than the fans not being wired, makes it get pretty toasty if there's traffic around, which pretty much describes my first drive with it since me buying it, but it didn't overheat and I'll soon fix that too (YouTube for the win).

[arnavvr]

10 hours ago, JoaoPRSousa said:

Pretty much just bought my dream spec first car for my first car. An E34 525i Touring, no VANOS engine, 5 speed.

 

 

(ignore the red bubbles on the rear hatch, those were caused by the phone, need to reflash it)

 

Interior and exterior wise it's far from being my dream spec, but I'll work on that. When buying used cars from 1992 you can't be too picky xD

 

Black leather interior (actually in pretty good condition the interior, for a 400k km car), SUNROOF WORKS, 4 electric windows and the steering wheel's so big I feel like I'm driving a bus (not far from the truth), and the steering column not being adjustable doesn't help it either (there's a lever but releasing it doesn't let me do anything). Clutch is pretty heavy, need to figure out what's going on there, brakes only grab at like half pedal travel too, throttle is touchy af and the cable was replaced recently so I wonder wtf the previous owner did with it (or I'm just used to dirty turdobiesels, but I've driven other NA petrol cars and they didn't feel like this so idk). Need to wire the fans, thing's running passive for now lmao. No cats from the factory, thing sounds sooooooooooooooooo goooooooooooooooooooood.

 

Shocks have also been replaced recently so it is damn comfortable, but I still hear some creaking coming from the suspension/underside, need to check that out too. Shifter moves around a bit when not pressing on the throttle, I believe one of the mounts might be busted, if not an engine mount.

 

All in all, it was pretty cheap (one of the cheapest E34s listed here) and has some flaws which I am totally ok with since I plan on fixing most of them myself. It's nothing that prevents me from driving it other than the fans not being wired, makes it get pretty toasty if there's traffic around, which pretty much describes my first drive with it since me buying it, but I didn't overheat and I'll soon fix that too (YouTube for the win).

Good for you on getting a good price on one! pre-Bangle bimmers have appreciated significantly recently, which makes it harder to find a nice one for a good price.

[JoaoPRSousa]

31 minutes ago, arnavvr said:

Good for you on getting a good price on one! pre-Bangle bimmers have appreciated significantly recently, which makes it harder to find a nice one for a good price.

 

I've seen what a 525i E34 Touring is going for on BaT and holy heck, they're pretty pricey there now! Obviously, in Europeland, things are a bit different and these cars aren't that sought after, especially with the E30/6 craze. And I can't complain one bit, I've always loved the E34 and obviously the M50 too.

 

Currently it's sitting in the garage waiting to be insured and I can't stop thinking about taking it out and just go for a spin around the block and stop outside to take another dose of simply looking at it and lusting over it.

[bcredeur97]

I may have caved and bought a VR6 model after over a year of staring at TDI’s and planning to buy one lol. The price of this one in this market made it hard to pass up 

And it still has drivetrain warranty left (10yrs/100k miles) 

 

also I got a new job sooo 

[arnavvr]

10 minutes ago, bcredeur97 said:

I may have caved and bought a VR6 model after over a year of staring at TDI’s and planning to buy one lol. The price of this one in this market made it hard to pass up 

And it still has drivetrain warranty left (10yrs/100k miles) 

 

also I got a new job sooo 

 

Congrats on the new job! I know you hate spending money but it's nice to splurge once in a while. 

 

My family had a 2004 Volkswagen Touareg V8 as a family car, and it was pretty nice. (I'll see if I can find some pictures) Gas mileage was atrocious, but besides that, it was pretty reliable and had great ride quality and interior.

 

The one I really want is the V10 TDI, but those are $20,000+ Pretty cool though.

 

 

[bcredeur97]

2 hours ago, arnavvr said:

Congrats on the new job! I know you hate spending money but it's nice to splurge once in a while. 

 

My family had a 2004 Volkswagen Touareg V8 as a family car, and it was pretty nice. (I'll see if I can find some pictures) Gas mileage was atrocious, but besides that, it was pretty reliable and had great ride quality and interior.

 

The one I really want is the V10 TDI, but those are $20,000+ Pretty cool though.

-snip-

 

yeah basically i wanted to find the most reliable one and I think that's what I bought. The TDI version of the 7p has some issues with the emissions stuff, the base gas vr6? I had a hard time finding anything that really goes wrong with it.. especially 2013 and later VW pretty much fixed all their timing chain issues(which plagued multiple engines I believe) too.

Unfortunately the 7p did kind of lose all of it's offroading prowess, but it'll do what I need. Get me to work and be able to carry/tow things if I ever need to. It's also funny because it's the direct opposite of my current daily driver, a 2004 civic. 

Thanks! Yeah this will be the first actual decent and reasonable car I've ever owned lol. Everything else has been "well uhh it's old and has issues". Which I mean the miata is pretty fixed up, but it's awful to daily it here lol.

[Bitter]

My MP-70X air hammer came a day early so I got to take it work today. She hits a little slower but the hits are super hard. Flattened an old washer out pretty good against the vice anvil. I'll have to see how it does with wheel bearings and bl joints, and get a beehive spring for it to keep the nose smaller.

[vetali]

Had a GM level screw up on a newly delivered Pilot today. Customer stated that the RR door sounded "hollow" when closing. I confirmed this, sounded like something was separated and rattling. Pull off the garnish because I can see it flexing when closed. Everything looked good. Then I take a peek where the garnish clipped into the door and I can see a big bracket hanging around rattling. I figured the regulator exploded but I didn't want to roll down the window because the car just got tinted, So I rip off the door panel, reach in, and pull out a brand new run channel guide. I look at both sides of the run channel to confirm that they were installed and both were there.

 

So somebody at the factory dropped the run channel bracket in the door, decided to leave it and just grab another out of the parts bag.

[arnavvr]

4 hours ago, bcredeur97 said:

yeah basically i wanted to find the most reliable one and I think that's what I bought. The TDI version of the 7p has some issues with the emissions stuff, the base gas vr6? I had a hard time finding anything that really goes wrong with it.. especially 2013 and later VW pretty much fixed all their timing chain issues(which plagued multiple engines I believe) too.

Unfortunately the 7p did kind of lose all of it's offroading prowess, but it'll do what I need. Get me to work and be able to carry/tow things if I ever need to. It's also funny because it's the direct opposite of my current daily driver, a 2004 civic. 

Thanks! Yeah this will be the first actual decent and reasonable car I've ever owned lol. Everything else has been "well uhh it's old and has issues". Which I mean the miata is pretty fixed up, but it's awful to daily it here lol.

Yeah it's pretty nice to have a car that you can depend on without having to think about if it's going to break on you. 

 

If you don't mind me asking, did you finance the vehicle? I might get a new (new to me, used car) car in the future and was wondering what rates were like for ~ 2012-era ish cars.

[Beerzerker]

3 hours ago, Bitter said:

My MP-70X air hammer came a day early so I got to take it work today. She hits a little slower but the hits are super hard. Flattened an old washer out pretty good against the vice anvil. I'll have to see how it does with wheel bearings and bl joints, and get a beehive spring for it to keep the nose smaller.

Such tools are nice to have when you need them.
I have a Mac Tool airhammer myself I got off the tool truck years ago and it's one that hits hard and fast, esp when the air pressure is right.
It should considering how much I gave for it but I can also say it's paid for itself a few times over too - Good tools will do that provided you take care of them.

[bcredeur97]

10 hours ago, arnavvr said:

Yeah it's pretty nice to have a car that you can depend on without having to think about if it's going to break on you. 

 

If you don't mind me asking, did you finance the vehicle? I might get a new (new to me, used car) car in the future and was wondering what rates were like for ~ 2012-era ish cars.

No I bought it cash lol.

 

im thinking about using it as collateral on a loan since debt is cheap right now though to have that cash on hand for other use cases instead lol 

 

but for now.. it’s paid for 

 

rates on local credit unions are like 3-4% it seemed. Some people have been able to get loans in the 2% range (but it’s definitely better for new cars) 

[vetali]

2 hours ago, bcredeur97 said:

No I bought it cash lol.

 

im thinking about using it as collateral on a loan since debt is cheap right now though to have that cash on hand for other use cases instead lol 

 

but for now.. it’s paid for 

 

rates on local credit unions are like 3-4% it seemed. Some people have been able to get loans in the 2% range (but it’s definitely better for new cars) 

Interest rates are what drove me to new again. I wanted a X5, but I couldn't find anything as cheap as the one we had (literally the day I decided I was gonna buy it, someone had bought it from out of state). Prices were climbing fast on them on other lots, so meh. Honda was doing .9% through financial. So I decided to go new again. Which is funny because I think they are down to 0% now on passports lol.

[Bitter]

11 hours ago, vetali said:

Had a GM level screw up on a newly delivered Pilot today. Customer stated that the RR door sounded "hollow" when closing. I confirmed this, sounded like something was separated and rattling. Pull off the garnish because I can see it flexing when closed. Everything looked good. Then I take a peek where the garnish clipped into the door and I can see a big bracket hanging around rattling. I figured the regulator exploded but I didn't want to roll down the window because the car just got tinted, So I rip off the door panel, reach in, and pull out a brand new run channel guide. I look at both sides of the run channel to confirm that they were installed and both were there.

 

So somebody at the factory dropped the run channel bracket in the door, decided to leave it and just grab another out of the parts bag.

One of my uncles used to work in a GM factory near Lansing MI, said that Friday afternoon beer cans were discarded in the cars they were building. Shove them in somewhere they won't rattle and no one will ever know. They aimed to wedge them in real good into the frames or between 1/4 panel and fender in the backs.

 

11 hours ago, Beerzerker said:

Such tools are nice to have when you need them.
I have a Mac Tool airhammer myself I got off the tool truck years ago and it's one that hits hard and fast, esp when the air pressure is right.
It should considering how much I gave for it but I can also say it's paid for itself a few times over too - Good tools will do that provided you take care of them.

This thing is a hard hitter for sure, even on my wimpy 8 gallon home compressor that's only for dusting and blowing. But at work fed full air I'm impressed. It's a lot slower but the hits are just so much harder, that makes it easier to control which is nice. I'll probably swap over a high flow fitting on it, I need to finish swapping the rest of the shops lines to high flows, some are only high flow at the tool end which makes fuck all difference.

[vetali]

6 minutes ago, Bitter said:

One of my uncles used to work in a GM factory near Lansing MI, said that Friday afternoon beer cans were discarded in the cars they were building. Shove them in somewhere they won't rattle and no one will ever know. They aimed to wedge them in real good into the frames or between 1/4 panel and fender in the backs.

 

I've heard stories like that, also from GM. Especially before strikes in the 80s. They'd start sabotaging cars.

[Bitter]

Just now, vetali said:

I've heard stories like that, also from GM. Especially before strikes in the 80s. They'd start sabotaging cars.

I think he was retired by the time that came around, ornery as hell but I miss him and his wife but with all this partisan politics I'm kind of glad they're not around for all this crazy shit.

[bcredeur97]

what should I do with the civic? need to get rid of it somehow can't have it being on my insurance lol

2004 civic LX w/136k miles, manual, makes bad noises, broken A/C 

doesn't exactly scream "this is the car I want" haha

[vetali]

2 minutes ago, bcredeur97 said:

what should I do with the civic? need to get rid of it somehow can't have it being on my insurance lol

2004 civic LX w/136k miles, manual, makes bad noises, broken A/C 

doesn't exactly scream "this is the car I want" haha

fix the AC as cheap as possible and then yeet it

[bcredeur97]

29 minutes ago, vetali said:

fix the AC as cheap as possible and then yeet it

That would mean paying someone to do it because I’m not touching it it’ll end up not running somehow after I touch it LOL

 

which then means it’s not worth doing 

[bcredeur97]

I’m gonna donate the car lol that’s the best thing I can think of 

[arnavvr]

9 hours ago, bcredeur97 said:

No I bought it cash lol.

 

im thinking about using it as collateral on a loan since debt is cheap right now though to have that cash on hand for other use cases instead lol 

 

but for now.. it’s paid for 

 

rates on local credit unions are like 3-4% it seemed. Some people have been able to get loans in the 2% range (but it’s definitely better for new cars) 

I don't know if I would keep cash on hand with inflation at 4.6%... Probably would just invest the rest of the money in stocks and use margin if I needed cash.

[dcgreen2k]

I mentioned a long time ago that my dad bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Well, he recently traded it in for a new Subaru Crosstrek because we foresaw some very expensive repairs coming up for the Jeep. We had it for just over two years and the suspension felt bouncy, the AC had broken, the brakes were weak, and black smoke had started to come out of the exhaust after accelerating from a stop. Needless to say he feels much more confident in the Subaru, and I'm liking it a lot as well.

[bcredeur97]

2 hours ago, dcgreen2k said:

I mentioned a long time ago that my dad bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Well, he recently traded it in for a new Subaru Crosstrek because we foresaw some very expensive repairs coming up for the Jeep. We had it for just over two years and the suspension felt bouncy, the AC had broken, the brakes were weak, and black smoke had started to come out of the exhaust after accelerating from a stop. Needless to say he feels much more confident in the Subaru, and I'm liking it a lot as well.

Nice. Heard great things about the crosstreks 

[jagdtigger]

Seems like this 5 gear transmission was not made for the freeway:


IDK about the engine though, that rpm seems a bit too high...... (speed shows 10 kmh more than actual btw)

[bcredeur97]

2 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

Seems like this 5 gear transmission was not made for the freeway:
-snip-
IDK about the engine though, that rpm seems a bit too high...... (speed shows 10 kmh more than actual btw)

Miata in disguise? 4000 rpm all day on the highway