Topic: What did you do to your car today?

[Ex-airbalancer]

Last night i spent about 4 hours replacing the shims for the seat position regulator on the drivers side on the Z3M.  Took a little over an hour to get the seats out and the shims replaced and then back in the car.  Took another three hours to get the slider worm gears lined up evenly, which involved removing and reinstalling the seat several times to get it just right. 

The original shims were rubber and the good ole boys at BMW South Carolina substituted a cheap lithium grease on a batch of cars when they ran out of the proper stuff. This caused the rubber shims to deteriorate, which caused a slight and annoying shift in the seat every time you braked, or accelerated from a stop.  The old ones were just a gooey mess when i cleaned them out.  The new shims are teflon, so i just used regular lithium grease to lubricate them again.   The cost for the shims was less than $20 shipped to my house.

[tortoise]

Oh man. That three hours getting everything lined up sounds sooooooo frustrating.

[KD]

Oh man. That three hours getting everything lined up sounds sooooooo frustrating.

To be honest a lot of that time was spent reviewing you tube vids.     Some glad i put a tv in the garage...lol  The first video advised to simply count the number of turns when removing the worm gears.  That didn't work well.  It actually worked each time i put the seat back in but the motion wasn't right and the motor seemed to be labouring compared to the passenger side.  I think it took four tries before i got it just right.

[Ex-airbalancer]

Oh man. That three hours getting everything lined up sounds sooooooo frustrating.

To be honest a lot of that time was spent reviewing you tube vids.     Some glad i put a tv in the garage...lol  The first video advised to simply count the number of turns when removing the worm gears.  That didn't work well.  It actually worked each time i put the seat back in but the motion wasn't right and the motor seemed to be labouring compared to the passenger side.  I think it took four tries before i got it just right.

How Long would it take without the beer keg in the garage 

[revalations]

Brought the 07 Caravan out of Summer hibernation to prepare it for winter duty. I treated it to a lightly used set of Hankook Winter tires I bought off Kijiji. It thanked me with a leaky water pump! Odometer nearly at 653,000 now, can't believe we put over 30 K on it in just over a year, especially considering it sat unused all summer. Highway driving racks up the miles quickly, why it's kinda nice to have a already miled out vehicle to use.

[KD]

Rolled 50K miles on the Z3M today.  End of day total was 50136.  Wow, the speed traps were bad in the Fredericton area today! 
We went through one on the way up and another on the way back.  Luckily my wife was with me, so no speeding today.   

[JohnnyMac]

Seeing as I expect this coming winter to hit early and hard here on the east coast, I have got both vehicles detailed inside and out before the bad weather hits.  My wife's Santa Fe gets a total of 1.5 hrs of my time where as my Golf R was a full 5 hour job.  Sometimes it really sucks having a vehicle you care so much about.

Got both scheduled for annual Krown rust treatment at the end of this month, followed by winter tire swap beginning of November for my Golf R and mid November for Santa Fe. 

[ArticSteve]

Got the Crosstrek "Krowned" on Monday.  Left the car parked on the road since then to allow for all those drip-drip-drips.  I have no intention of mucking up my driveway with the stuff.   

Long live the (rustproofed) king!   

Next on my "to-do" list:  buy and mount some Blizzak WS-80s in about 4 weeks or so.

^^ One of the few great values left in the world of auto services.   Very pleased to see the Army applying some smarts $$$ and getting their vehicles Krowned.  Don't know if it's everywhere or just the initiative of each Base. 

The below pic is one of a heavy vehicle from the Meaford base done at Owen Sound Krown who last year added a 2 story garage to handle the vehicles.  Prior they sprayed the military vehicles outside.   

[Firm]

The Sonoma got it's annual wash and wax, plus I treated the leather seats and changed the oil. Only put about 350kms on it this season I was planning on tucking it away for the winter today, but realized I am out of fuel stabilizer and being a Holiday there was no where to get any - so I'll have to save that for next weekend.

Looks good with a summer's worth of dust finally off of it:

[Bubba]

Why buy new when your old vehicles all look fantastic?  And not one of them have a screen nailed to the dash.

[Firm]

Why buy new when your old vehicles all look fantastic?  And not one of them have a screen nailed to the dash.

I agree. 
Between 180-220K I put a ton of work into this Sonoma, totally rebuilding the suspension, steering, brakes, intake gasket #2, tune up, fuel tank, fuel pump, etc, etc. At 232K, mechanically this truck is more 'new' than old; and in another life I have no doubt I could double the kms on it without putting much more into it....That said, the body on these are very rust prone, so I am sure that would kill it long before anything mechanical if it were in regular/winter use.

It's actually a shame that there's nothing like this today....This truck was perfect when I was a younger guy. Simple, RWD, torquey V6 a badass stereo (not stock) and a reasonably sized bed. Trips to the beach, cruising out local 'strip', hauling car parts, commuting to school/work....It did everything I asked of it well.

Now, we never use it because it can't fit the two of us + baby

[Seafoam]

Why buy new when your old vehicles all look fantastic?  And not one of them have a screen nailed to the dash.

I agree. 
Between 180-220K I put a ton of work into this Sonoma, totally rebuilding the suspension, steering, brakes, intake gasket #2, tune up, fuel tank, fuel pump, etc, etc. At 232K, mechanically this truck is more 'new' than old; and in another life I have no doubt I could double the kms on it without putting much more into it....That said, the body on these are very rust prone, so I am sure that would kill it long before anything mechanical if it were in regular/winter use.

It's actually a shame that there's nothing like this today....This truck was perfect when I was a younger guy. Simple, RWD, torquey V6 a badass stereo (not stock) and a reasonably sized bed. Trips to the beach, cruising out local 'strip', hauling car parts, commuting to school/work....It did everything I asked of it well.

Now, we never use it because it can't fit the two of us + baby

And it is an excellent example of why Krown works. See other thread.

[HeliDriver]

Finally got the GTI back together this weekend! Aside form the cleaning, complete list of new parts is - intake manifold, fuel injectors, water pump, PCV valve, diverter valve, fuel filter, ECS clutch bleeder block and Diesel Geek short shifter. The intake manifold was the only thing that had actually failed, the rest is just maintenance or parts with known issues that I figured I'd replace proactively.

Was less hassle putting it back together than I expected, partly because I had the right tools, but mostly because I now knew how everything fits together. I wouldn't hesitate to do it again, and I'm sure I could bang through it in a day. Will definitely not be doing the chemical scrub on the valves again, though - I don't know how many brain cells the fumes cost me, but it's more than I can spare.  I'll buy the walnut shell blaster next time.

With that amount of carbon buildup at 143k km, I figure I should do it again in 100k km, or maybe even 75k. Haven't had a chance to drive it much, but definitely seems smoother and more eager to rev, and the little bit of part-throttle hesitation at certain rpms seems to be gone. Will need to do a proper test drive to be sure, though.

So far, the Diesel Geek shifter is a disappointment: shifts are certainly shorter (meh), but the notchyness that I disliked about the stock shifter is completely unchanged. They say it takes some time to break-in, but I'm skeptical. Guess we'll see.

I heard a fun little whoosh from the new diverter valve that I don't remember hearing from the old one. Old one was in surprisingly fine condition when I took it out, but the new one is a revised part and supposed to hold boost a bit better. Figured it was a cheap replacement, so why not.

Haven't totalled up the cost, but with all the stupid special tools I bought and screwing around with trips to the city for parts, I probably didn't save a ton of money. And of course, the shop wouldn't have taken two weeks, either (or was it three?) Car still needs a new timing chain tensioner and I'll replace the timing chain at the same time, just because. I'd thought about doing that myself, but will definitely be taking it to the shop for that one! Can't spare another three weeks without the car if/when I screw it up!

[rrocket]

I loved my Diesel Geek short shifter and had zero notchiness. Although at the same time I changed the fluid, dog bone bushings and put a large, weighted shift knob on. I also spent what I thought was an inordinate amount of time tweaking and setting up the kit.

I loved it because I thought the OEM shifting was so poor.

[HeliDriver]

I loved my Diesel Geek short shifter and had zero notchiness. Although at the same time I changed the fluid, dog bone bushings and put a large, weighted shift knob on. I also spent what I thought was an inordinate amount of time tweaking and setting up the kit.

I loved it because I thought the OEM shifting was so poor.

So, your stock shifter was notchy and the Diesel geek fixed it?

It just seems to me that whatever is causing the notchiness in the stock shifting is completely unaffected by the Diesel Geek shifter. I can't say that I spent a bunch of time setting it up, just followed the instructions and ran through the gears parked in the garage. Seemed fine. It also seems fine on the road - no problem getting into gear or anything, just has the same notchy feeling as stock.

I'll give it a few weeks and go back and adjust it if it's not better. I think I'll also replace the rubber shift bracket bushings with metal ones - probably should have done that in the first place, but somehow I overlooked that.

[rrocket]

I loved my Diesel Geek short shifter and had zero notchiness. Although at the same time I changed the fluid, dog bone bushings and put a large, weighted shift knob on. I also spent what I thought was an inordinate amount of time tweaking and setting up the kit.

I loved it because I thought the OEM shifting was so poor.

So, your stock shifter was notchy and the Diesel geek fixed it?

It just seems to me that whatever is causing the notchiness in the stock shifting is completely unaffected by the Diesel Geek shifter. I can't say that I spent a bunch of time setting it up, just followed the instructions and ran through the gears parked in the garage. Seemed fine. It also seems fine on the road - no problem getting into gear or anything, just has the same notchy feeling as stock.

I'll give it a few weeks and go back and adjust it if it's not better. I think I'll also replace the rubber shift bracket bushings with metal ones - probably should have done that in the first place, but somehow I overlooked that.

I hated the stock shifting. Yes, was notchy...and just a disappointing box to row, period. I've also thought this of most VW boxes..unsurprising since they share the same design.

Does your notchiness subside even a bit when warm? If so, switch to a high quality synthetic. FWIW, nothing but fluid has made dramatic differences in some cars I've owned as far as smoothness goes. The difference between fluids in the IS300 for example is shocking. The Miata guys share similar experiences.

I'm also certain my heavy weight shift knob helped. And likely the dog bones too! It was a complete solution. The only negative IMO was the higher durameter poly bushings transmitted more NVH. Not horrific mind you, but I could notice initially. It "disappeared" from my perception after I got used to it.

And like I said...I spent awhile adjusting. Even called diesel geek for pointers.

I thought it was really good when I was done and was my best mod towards driving enjoyment I think.

[HeliDriver]

^^ OK, guess I'll remain optimistic. I only drove it for around 20 minutes. Probably too soon to comment, really, as Diesel Geek says it needs a few weeks to break in (although everything moved super-smooth on the bench, so not sure what there is to break in.)

The notchiness is weird: Manipulating the shift mechanism directly on the transmission housing isn't notchy at all, so I don't think it's internal to the gear box. The Diesel Geek shifter also made no real difference, so I don't think that's the problem. So, what's left? There's definitely those rubber bushings under the shift bracket, the cables, and then whatever mechanism is under the lever itself?

Yeah, the notchiness has probably always gotten a bit better when warm, but it never totally goes away. I replaced the gearbox oil a few years ago, but with OE fluid again. I'd heard it's the best all-around, especially for winters up here. Can't remember if the fresh fluid made much difference or not. Did the dogbone a few years ago as well - really impressed with that, but moreso for wheelhop/driving characteristics than shifting.

And I'm sure the short-throw shifter would be better with a weighted shift knob, but I'm just not going to do it. Love the look and feel of the stock one.

[rrocket]

Wonder if the cables are binding or hanging up on something?

[HeliDriver]

I dunno, I think that’s just the way it is. It’s always been like that, and notchiness seems like a normal complaint on this car. Lots of users say the Diesel Geek is notchy as well, but that it breaks in after a while and gets smooth. Guess we’ll see.

[ChaosphereIX]

Cleaned the Alfa up for pics for the Jalopnik article...and they use an old one anyways...go figure