I have heard of people getting their catalytic converters stolen on the news but never thought it would happen to me.
I found a screw in one of the tires on my daily driver (Bonneville SSEi) so I thought I would take the Cougar to work today. It has pretty much rained for the last month and i haven't been able to drive it. Of course I try to start it and the battery is dead. Plan C is my kid's car (he only has a learner's permit) so I took it. It's a Toyota 4Runner.
I was parked right out in front of work all day. On my way out to leave I noticed an exhaust hanger right under the truck and though "I'm glad I didn't run that over." I started the truck and heard the nasty sound of a straightpiped toyota V6. I instantly knew what had happened. Sometime between 8 and 5 some jackass crawled under it and stole the cat. It was a long drive home...
My wife trading her Pontiac Vibe GT last weekend. She is (and I am by default) really big into recycling, energy saving, and all that eco stuff. She bought a 2015 Chevy Volt. Her daily commute is less than 10 miles total per day and the car can supposedly go about 38 miles on only electric power so she basically won't be using gas anymore. She will be going to school full time starting next month but that is only about a 25 round trip too. Seems like a good deal to me.
I have only rode in the car once so far but man it is NICE. I was expecting it to be pretty cheap feeling inside but was very surprised. It feels like a space ship inside with the screens, all the buttons, and a weird humming noise like the Jetson's car. I have to say I like it.
We haven't taken many pics of it yet but I stole one from my wife's Facebook...
Here are some pictures of the air show at Offutt AFB last weekend. I didn't technically go to the show but I live on the base pretty close to the runway so got some decent pictures from my backyard. The best part was being able to go inside and soak up some air conditioning whenever I wanted, eat my own snacks, and use my own bathroom! The downside was I didn't get any pics of the static display aircraft.
F-22 Raptor
Heritage flight with F-22 Raptor and P-38 Lightning
Ever since I went to the dyno earlier this month I have been trying to track down why my car isn't performing quite like it should. It runs great in the lower RPM range but once you get to 3800+ it just stops pulling and takes FOREVER to rev up.
Here is a run down of the car. The car is an 86 Cougar with the engine and wiring harness from an 86 XR7 and a T5 from an 87 TC. The engine itself is all stock with the exception of an A237 cam. The engine only has 52k on it. The turbo is the stock T3 with an SVO compressor housing and a .63 AR turbine housing. Gillis at 15 psi of boost. Stock TC intercooler. The exhaust is all 3" with a Dynomax race bullet ler. It has an LA2, big VAM, and 35lb injectors. The fuel pump is a 320 lph (rating might be embelished a bit...) from highflowfuel.com. Plugs are fresh Autolite 764s gapped at .030. Timing is stock 10 degrees BTDC, spout out. Cam timing was just set and checked when I did the cam swap last month.
After the dyno, I lowered the boost as much as possible with the Gillis. It is at around 10 psi now. I made a few highway pulls and it feels the same as when it was at 15 psi. Afr is now around 12ish during the pull (used to be right at 11-11.5) which seems pretty high considering I have the base FP at 44 and it's pretty much a stock engine. I confirmed fuel pressure is rising at a 1:1 ratio to about 54 during the test runs and is steady with no fluctuation. I didn't hear any pinging during these runs.
The next thing I noticed is that I no longer have cold start enrichment. It used to be as soon as I would start the car after sitting overnight it would run in the 10.5-11 AFR range for about a minute then it would lean out to the 14-15 range. The last few times I have started the car it has instantly been around 16-17 and idling slightly rough.
The last thing I found was that it won't do a KOER test. KOEO ran fine but when I tried the KOER it flashed the two flashes for the engine ID then revved up to about 2200 for about 10 seconds before dropping down, stumbling, and dieing. I repeated it several times with the same result. No codes were reported.
I pulled the plugs to see I any of them looked different (injector clogged or not firing maybe) but they all looked the same. While I was at it I did a compression test and got 150-160 on all cylinders. The car still runs fine and has nice power at low to moderate throttle.
The general consensus on Turboford for the low power/slow revving is worn valve springs. I'm OK with that and will hopefully be swapping them out soon but what about the weird fuel related issues? Could it be that the EEC is damaged and not controlling fuel properly?
I sold my van 2 weeks ago and picked up this Bonneville on Monday. I'm not sure it was the greatest thing to do since my van was pristine with only 51k on it but it sure was thirsty, only getting around 12mpg around town. I bought the van for road trips because my son is 5' 10" and needed something with legroom but we just aren't able to take as many trips as we would like to.
The Bonneville is a 2001 with a supercharged 3.8 with 161k (ouch!) on it. It is pretty much fully loaded with heated leather, sunroof, HUD, Bose stereo, etc. It runs reasonably well but needs a bit of TLC in a few areas.
Here are a few pictures after getting it mostly cleaned up.
My apologies for the dirty garage, I tried to get a pic of the HUD here...
Looking for suggestions on a friends car. It is a 75 Mustang II with a heads and cam 302 and a C4. The car was running fine but he had to be away from it for a few years, now it wont shift into 3rd gear. I had him put a vacuum gauge on it and it was only pulling 13-14 in hg. He called his dad who said it used to pull 18 in hg.
I'm not all that familiar with the C4. Is that enough vacuum for the vacuum modulator to shift into all gears? The transmission was inspected by the shop that built it and they say it's fine.
I couldn't find an obvious vacuum leak but I assume there is one due to the drastic drop in vacuum.
My wife and I are wanting to build a prank for the house to play on our guests. We have an idea in mind but I would like some input on making it functional.
It needs to be battery powered and fit in something about the size of a shoebox. Smaller would be better but we can work around it if the components are too big.
The main component will need to be a sound maker that makes a klaxon sound like the following link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2VhB7vaZI0 It can be a horn or a digital sound maker, doesn't matter but the sound is important.
I pulled my wheels off to try to figure out a squeak that I have in the rear brakes. It usually doesn't do it until after I have been driving for a little bit (after the brakes get warm I guess) and is proportional to how fast I drive. It goes away with the slightest application of the brakes. I found the driver side caliper is rather wobbly feeling compared to the passenger side. The pinch bolt holding the caliper to the bracket is tight, it just looks like the caliper pin is too small causing some side to side play.
Could this be from the pin's boot being torn and dirt getting in there? Another thought I had is maybe the pads aren't adjusted properly since I never put the TC Ebrake components on this car. Thoughts?
The car is an 86 Cougar with an 87 TC rear end and brakes. When I swapped the rear, I didn't take any of the brakes apart so I am not sure if it has always been like this or not but the TC did have a quarter of a million miles...
Here is a short video showing the caliper movement.
My driver side window in my 99 Dodge Van started acting up last weekend and I am not sure where to start on fixing it. It rolls up and down but makes crunching sounds and gets caught about halfway when rolling it up. If I lower it a bit then go back up it goes up. I have left it up for the last week but it is a huge pain to not roll it down because I live on base and have to show my ID to the guards several times a day.
It uses a cable type system that I am not familiar with and I have read that some conversion companies (mine is a Regency conversion) used different power window setups because they bought the vans with manual windows, so I am not even sure this is a Dodge factory setup. Any help is appreciated!
I got a few more Tripminders in and just finished the first one up. I cleaned it up, sanded between the button contacts, and swapped Fox brackets onto it. $40 shipped to the lower 48 states.
I am clearing out some of my parts to make room in the garage. I only have one Fox left and I don't plan on getting anymore anytime soon so these parts have to go. Prices include shipping to the lower 48. I prefer Paypal and can also accept postal money orders if needed. Thanks.
I will add more parts as I find them.
1986 Thunderbird owners manual (2). $12 each
1983 Thunderbird owners manual and warranty booklet. $12
Plastic plug for fender hole on EFI V8 cars. $8
85+ console panel. Average condition with typical paint chipping. $17
Premium sound door speaker grilles. Very nice shape, no broken tabs. $25
System sentry. It has one broken mount on the right side. $12
Heater controls. Nice shape. $17
Consolette panel. Excellent shape. From no options car. $20
Tape holder for consolette. Nice shape but has a button missing. $14
Premium sound amp from 87 TC. The car didn't have a stereo when I got it so I don't know if it works. Free, just pay shipping.
Small VAM. I swapped to a big VAM and have this left over. $25
VAM hose with inner spring. $12
Boost control solenoid. This came from my 87 TC and worked fine when I removed it. $15
TC horn buttons (2) The covers are in nice shape but both have a broken tab. $12 each
Power recline seat trim with switches. Minor scuffs but in great shape. $20
TC air box. This came from my 87 TC I parted. Free plus shipping.
87-88 Cougar tail light. Decent shape. Has a crack in the center and a chip on the end but good for a daily driver. $35
Center console. This came from my 87 TC. It is in good shape with a few minor flaws. The lid has typical wear and button is broken. The rear ashtray is missing. One of the front horizontal supports is broken. $30 plus actual shipping.
Center console. This came from my 86 Cougar. It is in good shape but could use a cleaning. The lid is dirty but has no tears and the button works. The supports are broken on this one too, so the front "arms" are kinda floppy but everything is fine once you put the top panels on. $40 plus actual shipping.
I just got home from the Firestone Tires on the base here where our Pontiac was getting some work done and I cannot believe the things I saw. We are pretty pissed about it.
First of all, we should have known better than to go there. We got some new tires there a couple of months ago and when my wife got home she the car was running really bad and kept dying. I pop the hood and find this...
They lef the hose between the MAF and the TB unsecured so it was running like because of all the dirty, unmetered air it was ingesting. Nice. They apologized and were pretty cool about it so I let it go.
Last Thursday we finally decided to get some wheel bearings done on the Vibe. It had been making noise for a while. Nothing terrible, but noticeable. I tried to figure out which side was making noise and couldn't figure it out so we figured we would give Firestone another try since they are convenient (across the street from my wife's building.) We took it in Thursday morning and they called us within 2 hours and told me most of the noise was the right, front wheel bearing. They said the left side was somewhat worn, but did not need to be replaced urgently. I told them to go ahead and replace both side while it was in there and they said it would be a couple of hours.
They called me around 5 and told me they had trouble getting the parts in a timely manner (in their defense, a tipped over cattle truck was disrupting traffic that day) and that it would be finished first thing in the morning. I was fine with that.
The next day I dropped my wife at work and she was just going to walk over there to get the car during lunch. She got over there and they said the spindle nut was stripped and they couldn't find one. They said they had to get it from the dealer and it probably wouldn't be in until Monday (today.) I'm sure they didn't think to check the Toyota dealer, but anyway...
We did not hear from them today so I called them around lunch time. The guy said they were just getting all the parts they needed and were putting it together. He said it would be done in the afternoon. We stopped by at 6pm because they close at 7 and we hadn't heard anything from them. The guy at the counter apologized and said they were having a problem with the bearing and offered to take me in the back and show me. We went back there and had a look.
The Vibe was up on the lift with greasy hand prints all over it. The caliper was dangling by the hose. The ground effects were being bent by the positioning of the lift arms. He showed me the spindle while he explained to a stripped nut. He said it was fine to use even though it was missing 1/3 of the threads. After that I called his attention to everything they had done wrong and he admitted his tech did screw up bad enough to be pulled from the job. He (this guy was the shop manager) said he would personally oversee the correction of these things and that he or the store manager would contact me tomorrow morning to speak to me about the job.
Here are the pics... He found a better place for the caliper once I called him out on it.
The quoted price for this "work" I had done was $477. I'm sure as hell not paying that. I knew I should have just done the work myself like I always do. This is why I avoid shops.
