Long time no hear or talk we talk several times on the forums about the Endura-Techs coilovers. How is your car? Hit me back up Enjoy your forum

 

Too cold and too windy to do any washing today.

 

Its cold and wet today. Cold is good for the GD's power, but not so good for wet pavement and tires...really needs LSD on his car. Almost everytime I accelerate while making a righthand turn the inner tire spins.

 

had cold and crappy weather the last few days so been taking my GD to go to work. hope the temp goes up soon so that regardless of rain i can take my G to work and wash her on the weekends.

ive been noticing this intermittent squeaking sound from my GD's driver side front wheel area and need to check if it's my wheel bearing, CV, or brake wear indicator. im thinking it's the bearing as the car's been in a minor fender bender 2yrs ago when i got rammed on the passenger fender and pushed my front driver side wheel into the curb...

regardless i still need to get the 2 recalls done so i shall take it in this summer to have everything fixed. will also inquire about the big paint chipped area from the accident if their airbrush touchup guy can fix it. i dont feel like paying for a full repair at a bodyshop as the car is 3.5yrs old and it's not perfect looking any more anyway. hahaha.

 

hey chaplain! sorry didnt see this post from my DroidX when i logged in a few days ago. how've you been? thanks for reading.

today went to target to run some errands in my GD. parking lot was kinda packed except for this one spot that was kinda tight. i knew i'd be out pretty quick so parked there and sure enough, i got out before the other 2 car owners on either side came back. now try THAT with a bigarse SUV. ha!

 

Woot, motored my Z this am. A tad too cold to wash my GD, maybe next weekend.

 

the other day i noticed that the rubber pedal cover on my clutch pedal was worn out yet again... so ordered new ones. these things only last me like 6-7months.

i also found that my snow boots that i wore last winter kind of ate into the factory all weather mats and now it looks like it's almost about to give out... meaning, i just replaced them last Fall and there's almost a hole already!! oh well. hahahaha.

if i decide to keep this car longer i will get some WeatherTech mats for sure. i just need the fronts (actually, only the driver side...).

not much else going on with my cars... just waiting for warmer weather so i can use my G as my dd. still like 45-55F so kinda chilly to wash on the weekends.

 

been reading about people's factory wheels getting stolen so thought i'd post my comments in my blog.

our wheels have bolt pattern 4x100 PCD. 4 lug nuts 100mm diameter from the center of the wheel. PCD stands for Pitch Circle Diameter. it is a very popular size for lower-end cars and the older Civic crowd as they used 4x100 PCD. here's a illustration from wiki:



primary reason why thieves want factory wheels vs aftermarket is factory wheels are hard to trace as there's so many of them out in the market, plus thieves know which car they stole them from so they can easily make their for-sale ads.

most thieves do not have much knowledge of the wheels they are stealing... so if they stole aftermarket wheels they wont know the specs to put on their ad. car guys will always ask for wheel diameter x width, offset, PCD, center bore diameter, and type of lug it uses for compatibility .

ideally i think insurance companies want to recommend car manufacturers to etch ID numbers onto the inner side of the wheel (not inside where it holds air with the tire) so that it will be tracable. database will keep track of wheels that were reported stolen, linked to their VIN numbers. theives would have to grind out the ID numbers making it a permanent mark that it was stolen. while dealers service customer cars they would do a quick check on the wheel ID for authensity. people buying such wheels will also need to be prosecuted. where there is no demand, there will be no sale, no theft. kinda far fetched though... too much labor and infrastructure involved, so cheaper to have people's wheels stolen and re-purchased by insurance.

but for now, if you want to go the extra mile for theft deterrent instead of wheel locks that people can remove in less than 2min without a key, i recommend one installs tilt sensors on their aftermarket alarm system. basically raise one side of the car, the alarm sounds... no magic to it. some european cars come with them from the factory...

i suppose ive been somewat lucky that i have never had my wheels stolen. my first approach is not parking anywhere that might invite thieves in general...but we all know from time to time we HAVE to park in some suspicous location or neighborhood.

ive had other bits stolen from my car long time ago while getting service at the dealer. it was a terrible feeling being violated like that, especially by someone you trusted, so i know how it feels.

 

Washed my GD today with my son. clean. He did the all season mats, PrimaNero'ed for a nice matte black finish.

the aftermarket deadpedal was partially rusted so cleaned it with a wire brush and sprayed it matte black. Looks new again. . I might spray the rear drums black too down the road. So ugly wit rust peeking through the spokes.

Also motored my Z and installed new CF side mirrors from Craftssquare. Awesome functionality and looks.

 

hey motored my Fit to work this am... felt good driving a clean car. hahahaha.

will be pollenized by evening. i hate this part of spring with my sinus and all. one of the main reasons why ive not bought a vert. can't drive with the top down on nice cool days. by summer it'd be too hot and i dont have the luxury to motor my car in the evenings... hummm... wait till the kids are older.

 

one thing i forgot to do over the weekend was to remove part of the cluster off to e-tape the TPMS light inside.. shall do it maybe something this week.

i did however check all my fluid levels...added a tiny bit of engine oil. seems dino oil burns more quickly than synthetic since my GE's still running synthetic and it was at the full mark. my GD's running dino oil and it was at the half-mark. hummm.... i do rev the GD high often.

 

motored my GD to work today. actually it was pretty damn enjoyable! traffic was light and just perfect.

going to get some gas tonight and stop by over at sears to pickup a strap-wrench. im going to be swapping out the Z's shift knob and want to try to remove it without damaging it while using the strap wrench. nissan uses a ton of loctite on the knob out of the factory so i need to hold the shaft below and then turn the knob using this tool... otherwise i'll just distroy the knob (ahem, like last time i did on my G )...

after removing the Z's knob, im going to use it on my G before it's summer time. i have a TWM knob in my G right now which is all great as my weekend car but for the commute it gets FRIKKEN HOT! in the sun while parked outside during the day hahaha i also have an aftermarket shiftboot i bought and never used custom made for the G so going to install that as well.

on my Z im thinking about getting a metal PasswordJDM knob on there. i dont care using metal knobs on my hobby cars cause i never park outside anyway..and on cold days i wear gloves so no issue.

 

so with the barrel of gas coming down 9% in a frikken day i think we can expect some relief in gas prices soon... yesterday's fill up was $34 for me on the GD, i forget how many gallons that was but it had about a quarter of a tank left. not too bad i guess considering my commute is only like 12miles one way so i only fill like once every 3wks or less.

i was hoping gas prices would keep going up until i was ready to sell the Fit so that i could maximize my profit...then fall soon after. lol but oh well.

motored my G to work again today. i feel more at home in this car. i suppose after driving so many economy cars for so long (decades) you get tired of the overall dynamics of economy cars. it's just tiring all together.

with the very limited time i have for myself in my family life i suppose i need to enjoy every minute i have including motoring the G as much as i can... too bad the G has very limited cargo space and clumsy when carrying kids around especially in the rain. i can hardly use it as my all-round car... like family aside, i shop at places like homedepot off and on and the G is just not the car to bring. lol like wearing dresshirt and pants to your soccer game or something. or even shopping for my music gear... where the hell am i going to put all that stuff in my rear glove box aka trunk? i dont see how people live their lives with just a coupe.

 

so yesterday my GD was very busy running 1/2 tank+ of gas just doing local errands all day long... in one of the errands i took my younger kid to the music store to sell one of my music gear. the box was pretty big so i couldn't take both kids along but that was ok. wife took the older kid in the GE while doing other errands.

while i was going around in my errands one of the parking lots was completely full but the guy at the parking booth said i could park my car in the corner in the paint hatched area (no parking zone) cause my car would fit. lol it was tight but no issue getting in/out. was very cool. saved me like 15min finding another parking lot and walking. guy even joked i shouldn't have to pay full price on parking cause my car was so little. LOL

today went out to motor my Z early am before everyone was up. made my wife mother's day lunch with the kids and we're going to take her out later this pm to the mall in my GD.

 

so the squeaking noise from the driver side front is definitely the brake pad indicator telling me im down to 2mm. i can tell from the noise it's making. need to decide below:

1) let dealer do just the front pads on both sides...get raped $500 cause they will force feed me to bleed the brakes and turn the rotors.

2) let buddy's shop do it but i'd need to buy the pads first... $250 tops.

3) let midas do it.. raped $300 on inferior parts and labor...

4) let myself do it... $50 and a sore back...

 

looking at my schedule i decided that i would like to get raped by the dealer this week for the brakejob. i will bring gel..


going to check out the Accords too while im there i guess. i was looking through edmunds yesterday to check out the new civic picts... wow.. what the hell is honda doing? it looks like a camry from like 7-8yrs ago and looks so dated. it looks worse than a corolla!! looks fugly.

while KIA (yes kia) has a new sedan that actually looks better and modern looking...!!! honda, wake up, you're going in the wrong direction!

 

this is wat im talking about....

2012 HONDA CIVIC.




2011 KIA FORTE



wtf is going on here, honda??!!

 

here's wat a camry looked like back in the early 2000's...

see the resemblese with the new pos civic???!

 

even the chevy cruze is going to kick the civic's arse in styling...

 

woot! already got my car back from the dealer. actually i had a great experience and didn't get raped either. lol so all in all, very good!

so im going to be putting back the stock steering wheel and stereo in the GD once i can get around to it. im going to take it into carmax and appraised. depending on how much i can get for it i'll either sell it on the spot or trade-in.

dont worry, the GE's not going anywhere.