George's Garage

[Phil_SS]

Speedos, by law, can read high, but not low.

This.

From what I have seen, normally the speedometer is about 2-3mph higher than your actual speed.

[George]

Here's how the BMW sits now. The boy reinstalled the timing belt (and all that other stuff) and confirmed everything is at TDC. He replaced all the coolant hoses with new ones, made a new batch of BMW blue coolant solution to fill 'er up, and was ready to start the car. Then he discovered a coolant leak into the driver's footwell, which he originally noticed as a puddle under the car. The drain tubes (he said there are two) are miraculously working and not clogged up after all this time, or so it seems.



Apparently this is a documented, age-related problem with the heater core due to plastic and rubber parts above and in front of the driver's feet wearing out. New parts arriving today, we think.

I haven't done anything about the Ridgeline's speedometer problem yet, but it sustained some minor damage this weekend while up in northern Colorado for my daughter's softball tournament on Saturday and Sunday. Her team played two games in the morning, but then they cancelled the third game in the afternoon due to near-freezing cold and high winds. We already had a hotel room, and so, with the afternoon free, after visiting the brand new Buc-ees highway store in Johnstown, Colorado, and Colorado State University in Fort Collins, we drove north to Cheyenne, Wyoming for lunch and to have a look around.

I was glad to have a fifteen-year-old car during the worst wind storm I've ever driven through so I could laugh off all the impacts...er, almost.

Here's a short video my daughter filmed from the passenger seat at one point, but this was hardly all of it. We drove through this for probably two hours total as we went up and back. The rolling terrain meant we were occasionally in shallow valleys with a brief respite from the constant barrage, but mostly it was like this from Wellington to Cheyenne and then back to Greeley. I was driving slowly because the wind was so strong it felt unsafe to go any faster.



^ That also reminded me of a Stephen King short story.

This was scary to see - a semi truck on its side and blocking both lanes of Southbound I-25:



A dually pickup was pulling this trailer. The truck was still upright when we passed, but he had obviously dragged the trailer to the shoulder.



Picture from this morning in my driveway.



And another from this morning. I've been wanting to remove this ugly, dealer-added-for-more-profit roof rack since I bought this car. I'll take this as a sign I should make it go away, since I haven't used it in almost five years of ownership. I intend to drop by one of the local Honda dealers to see if I can get the full-length original rubber/plastic strips that serve as drip rails on modern cars so I can un-bolt this big-ol' gas mileage reducer.



Here's a picture I snapped at home near sunset on Sunday evening when the sun was just right to highlight these tumbleweed scratches. Guess I'll have to apply some car wax and elbow grease. "That'll buff right out!"

[CudaMan]

That's some crazy weather!

It's hard to tell from a photo if it's possible, but tumbleweed scratches *can* buff out. With a machine polish I bet they would at least be significantly reduced.

[dodint]

Wow, that's wild. Glad you weren't hit by a flying cow or something.

[Godson]

holy cow, that isn't cool