Topic: What did you do to your car today?

[Great_Big_Abyss]

Had the van detailed for winter (wash, vaccum, windows, interior clean, wax) in the parkade next to work - all of $80. Guy was amazed at its condition for a 10 y.o. !

Minus the rust, right? 

Complete opposite case for my brother's minivan.  2021 Odyssey, and I imagine by now it has a layer of crap six inches thick from his four kids...

No rust left after the trip to the bodyshop. Might get it a yearly Ziebart before it snows to make sure the repairs hold for two years.

Oh, cool, you got it fixed.  Right on.  Good for another decade then, I suppose.

[Firm]

Replaced the rear shocks on the Escalade, for the second time in my ownership. Monroe makes the only viable (i.e not $1500 for two shocks) aftermarket options that maintains the rear self-leveling functionality. Plus, I can get Monroe stuff gratis through work, so that's what I've been using, but the durability leaves a lot to be desired.

I knew one of them was starting to weep, so I had a fresh set on hand, and this morning I came outside to find a nice pool of shock fluid underneath one of them, plus the weather was nice, so it was time to get it done...

I've done this before, on the lift, and it's about 20 minutes to physically swap them out. This time, no lift, so I did it on the driveway and it took about an hour. Good old GM truck, swapped them without even jacking up the truck or removing a wheel.

Then one of the air line fittings was leaking, so I spent 3 hours playing around with that to figure out why and solve it. After playing around with different o-rings and whatnot, I went to my local PartSource and unbelievably they actually had a kit with replacement GM air line with fittings in stock! Cut the line a couple feet back, spliced in the new line with a piece of vacuum hose and hooked everything up. Leak free!

[PJungnitsch]

Did what is likely the last work I'll do on the Vibe. I'd left the oil as often people like to change the fluids out when they buy something but the new owners are in an apartment so I changed it out for them. Did the cabin filter while I was at it, super easy, just drop the glovebox

The long ramps from CT are brilliant. Think Rrocket mentioned them, such a luxury compared to the old steel ones I fought with for years, the car just glides up them and each being made from two pieces they lego apart and store easy





Looking up underneath at the styrofoam making up the 5mph bumpers. Always thought this was a simple but brilliant design

[revalations]

Those ramps are on my list now. I have the old steel ones too. I did an oil change on this old Pontiac 6000 I bought a few years back not running. It only has 108,000 km but the silly fibre type cam gear failed. I recently got it running again and was met with a different type of oil filter. It’s inside the oil pan, a cartridge type. There’s no oil bung, just a big circular threaded plug about 6” in diameter. Unscrew the plug and the oil spats out around the filter, then pry the filter out. It’s a rather messy ordeal but fairly simple. The hardest part was finding the oil filter for one of these “iron duke” 4 cyl engines, had to have one brought in from far away Kelowna!


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[rrocket]

Did what is likely the last work I'll do on the Vibe. I'd left the oil as often people like to change the fluids out when they buy something but the new owners are in an apartment so I changed it out for them. Did the cabin filter while I was at it, super easy, just drop the glovebox

The long ramps from CT are brilliant. Think Rrocket mentioned them,

Yep, that's them!

Glad you like them.

Worth every penny IMO.

[rrocket]

Did what is likely the last work I'll do on the Vibe. I'd left the oil as often people like to change the fluids out when they buy something but the new owners are in an apartment so I changed it out for them. Did the cabin filter while I was at it, super easy, just drop the glovebox

The long ramps from CT are brilliant. Think Rrocket mentioned them,

Yep, that's them!

Glad you like them.

Worth every penny IMO.

[rrocket]

Did what is likely the last work I'll do on the Vibe. I'd left the oil as often people like to change the fluids out when they buy something but the new owners are in an apartment so I changed it out for them. Did the cabin filter while I was at it, super easy, just drop the glovebox

The long ramps from CT are brilliant. Think Rrocket mentioned them,

Yep, that's them!

Glad you like them.

Worth every penny IMO.

[Blueprint]

A record 24°C for November on Saturday, so I washed the New-England bugs off the Crossie. Doing the tire swap today on the Accent as it will be left behind for three straight weeks - and that fine weather may no longer be with us at that point.

[TheHire]

Took the car for a boot through the countryside, met up with DriverJeff, Triple Bob, had a surprise appearance by Jaeger too!

[HeliDriver]

So, this is why I wanted to do the brakes before selling the GTI. Rotors are badly pitted and rusty and look terrible.



I was actually on the Max Brakes site and ready to order, but they didn’t have the coated rotors in stock so I backed out.

Kinda glad I didn’t, now that I’ve had a closer look today. Yeah, rotors are ugly, but the brakes work fine. All the pads are wearing evenly and still have heaps of material left. I cleaned and lubed all the sliders (rears didn’t even need it) and will call it good. New owner can put on some shiny drilled and slotted rotors for show if he wants. 

I just have some rust touch ups to do now. Nothing fancy, just a quick and dirty fix to make it look decent from ten feet. Okay, maybe twenty.

[Firm]

I've never seen that type of pattern on a rotor....Almost looks like some type of contamination. Weird.

[PJungnitsch]

Delivered the Vibe to the buyer today, kind of an odd feeling. Had it since spring of 2010, served me well

Never did end up advertising, let friends and relatives know and it went to a friend of a friend, a Ukrainian couple just here a month

They don't really speak English yet, but they could talk to my wife who gets by in Ukrainian. She ended up getting them set up with insurance too.

All the cleaning and polishing I did when the weather was warm paid off, the wife really liked the car and that apparently was it. They paid the full $3500 asking, but when I was changing the oil yesterday I saw a front strut was leaking so I knocked $500 off

So, bought in 2010 with 140,000km for $6000 all in, sold in 2022 with 220,000km for $3000

Over the years the only major thing I did was changed the cat and O2 sensors to get rid of a code and the OEM alloys when they started to leak air, the rest was all just oil changes, tires, brake pads, etc. Pretty cheap motoring, I guess as expected for a Corolla drivetrain

2010



2022



That being said, while I'll miss the 5 speed in the Vibe, the Crosstrek is like the same car upgraded in every possible way. Unlikely to be as cheap an ownership experience though

[rrocket]

Nice!!

Yea, operating costs on these are nil.

Bro had one and passed out between kids.

[Bubba]

Delivered the Vibe to the buyer today, kind of an odd feeling. Had it since spring of 2010, served me well
Never did end up advertising, let friends and relatives know and it went to a friend of a friend, a Ukrainian couple just here a month
2022

Amazing condition.  I'm sure it will serve them well.  Slava Ukraini!

[PJungnitsch]

Nice!!

Yea, operating costs on these are nil.

Bro had one and passed out between kids.

Oh, and thanks for that TAC Shinee wax recc, that really gave it a nice shine and a smooth and hard paint feel. I thought a bit glossier on the paint and a bit darker on the plastic than the Turtle wax hybrid ceramic (which is still awesome stuff)

[rrocket]

Nice!!

Yea, operating costs on these are nil.

Bro had one and passed out between kids.

Oh, and thanks for that TAC Shinee wax recc, that really gave it a nice shine and a smooth and hard paint feel. I thought a bit glossier on the paint and a bit darker on the plastic than the Turtle wax hybrid ceramic (which is still awesome stuff)

You're quite welcome.

Currently my go to.

[me_2]

Great! Tell the new owners the ODO won't turn 300K kms but it is a normal bug feature! 

---
Winter shoes are back on the Volt.

I knew the actual summer set was on its very last stretch but lately something became more and more obvious over time, awaiting my long time scheduled rendez-vous, either unbalanced rim and/or misalignement with front tire: misalignment was confirmed and fix before leaving my local mechanic.

[HeliDriver]

Vibe looks great! Glad to hear it found a good home as well.

[PJungnitsch]

I knew the actual summer set was on its very last stretch but lately something became more and more obvious over time, awaiting my long time scheduled rendez-vous, either unbalanced rim and/or misalignement with front tire: misalignment was confirmed and fix before leaving my local mechanic.

Ouch! Never good to see metal on a tire

[Firm]

Man that Vibe looks great, and those operating costs are heard to beat. I maintain that from a long term cost perspective, nothing beats a traditional naturally aspirated four cylinder in a small well built platform. I'd have that Vibe over some new electric thingy any day.