All makes sense now
All makes sense now
Get that weak shit off my track
I have been doing a little struggling with continuing ownership of the Jag. I originally bought it for a) air conditioning (ROFL) and b) to have a nice car when the situation warranted. As it turns out, the Fiat is pretty much entirely fulfilling both purposes, and after owning an electric car I don't think I'd ever not have one around. It's conceivable that whatever is next might be a hybrid (like a Volt, not a Prius) but I hope/believe that by the end of 2016 there will be some other EVs on the market... like a Tesla or something. The Jag isn't getting and won't get much use.
And the Jag has a couple issues - the ABS module needs to be replaced, and the cluster I swapped in to replace mine that had a bad gas gauge has a bad temp gauge, and topping the list is the oxidation on the roof I thought I could control got way outta control last summer when the car sat outside, totally filthy, for several months while I tended the dog. It's pretty ugly. I've been going back & forth on getting a fix-it type of paint job - but those dollars on a car I'm unsure about are hard to justify.
Today may have been the final moment. I went to go pick up the Suburban and my dad ended up driving the Jag back to my place so I had a chance to just kinda watch it go down the road. The XJR is fucking awesome, no way its going anywhere anytime soon.
.......aaaaaaaand the Suburban's transfer case has totally failed. Spontaneously shifted in 4WD, won't shift out, "Service 4WD System" light on. Glad LA got cancelled or I would be fuming right now.
Talked to the shop that did the transfer case work this morning, and they're sending a tow truck to fetch it. There was some talk about "we tested the encoder on the bench and did an extensive road test..." which to me felt like a pre-fucking, where they come back in a couple days with "Well, it failed randomly, not our fault" but I'm hoping for the best. I will be really irked if a bearing replacement turns into something more. This is why I work on my own stuff.
I took a look at the XR's idle issue, and found a leaky vacuum port. Looks like maybe it was blowing open under boost and sucking closed under vacuum - perfectly explaining the post-psi high idle. That has been adjusted. I also made a new EGR blockoff plate out of 304 stainless. I hate having to defeat emissions systems, but if nobody is going to make a boost-tight EGR valve I'm left with no choice. Kinda lame - sometimes this state really hamstrings itself. So many ways to solve this and keep functional EGR valve, but none would pass smog.
I started taking the parts Jag apart - man, I love the way newer cars are assembled. Perfect, exact fits everywhere. It's fun watching it come apart, and I enjoy playing with the disassembled Legos. You should see the hood hinges - they're nuts!
Got Suburban back. Shop says the encoder (like a speed sensor) in the transfer case had failed, and that there was no charge because they should have tested it while it was out. Odd to say that after explicitly stating they had tested it while it was out. No idea, but it didn't cost me anything except an hour of driving time so whatever.
I think I finally got the XR's idling problem solved, however in exchange for idling at 900rpm all the time it developed a random wicked stumble below 2000rpm. I've since found one of the clips that holds the #1 injector connector on is broken, so the connection was weak at best, possibly even intermittent. After zip tying it in place, the stumble became worse, but totally consistent. Like, it always idles poorly and stumbles below 2000rpm. I can tell no difference in idle with the #1 injector connected or disconnected, and it moves like stink over 2k so that suggests a leaky or clogged (bad spray pattern) injector - and probably not actually the #1 injector, but some other injector that's dumping too much fuel. I *think* I may have smelled rich exhaust the other night too. Since they're only $25ea, I think I'm going to order some remans. $25 injectors may be quite bad, but they can't be worse than my 20 year old ones, right? I dunno! If nothing else I could learn something if the behavior changes...
I'm going to think about it a little bit before I do anything - but sadly it seems the XR's roadworthiness may have been overstated.
I spent an inordinate amount of time on the road this weekend - about 16 hours in two ~8-hour drives... Rancho Cucamonga, CA and back. Blah. It was time for the Mercedes one year check up & maintenance fest and Easter weekend was my only opportunity to do it until late June. I did not want to push the oil change to 16 months, so, well, whatever.
The Mercedes is still in very good shape. Frankly, I expected much worse! It is +8,000 miles since May of 2014. All four tires were about 4psi low except one that was 8psi. Fortunately I left them in November at 38psi, so even 8psi low isn't really that far off from spec. It does irk me that even though I bought her a compressor and an easy to use digital gauge she can't be arsed to check the tires, but I gotta get over that. All the fluids were full and the only new damage is on a front crossmember that hangs quite low - a big piece of tubular steel that looks like maybe it was an afterthought in the latter years of the W124. It's mangled and twisted on one end, probably from bottoming out on one of the Inland Empire's obscenely (inappropriately!) deep and wide gutters. Seriously, these gutters are all scarred from cars bottoming out. I mean, when you live there you should know about them and act accordingly, but they're INSANE. Look at these things!
churchst.JPG
Fortunately there was no important contact from the incident, although now that crossmember is about 1/4" from the bottom of the radiator. It won't take another hit without doing serious damage - so hopefully there aren't any more!
I was happy to see the protective film I made/installed on the headlights still looks awesome:
It's made from 3M vinyl and I've been using it on various cars for many years, but with the Benz is the first application that I did really well and the headlights were in great shape to start with. One year, no peeling or yellowing or anything else. Awesome!
I gave the interior & exterior a thorough scrubbing using the full assortment of protective products - 1Z Rubber Care on all the seals, Meguiar's Leather Cleaner/Conditioner on the seats, Mother's VLR on all the vinyl surfaces, and a coat of Klasse AIO on the paint.
(Yeah, I parked on the grass, but CA is in a drought and I didn't want to waste water!)
The paint on the horizontal surfaces wasn't great to begin with and it's taking a beating from the IE's sun, but there's no getting around that. It's still presentable, and it's still a nice car. Mechanically, I think this is the best we've gotten out of a car for her at the Year One mark.
I have mentioned it before, but the driver of this car is a borderline horder. I almost took a picture of the trunk to share with you all but didn't. I don't actually know why, because I am going to tell you what was in the trunk:
o 1 gallon of Mercedes coolant - new
o 2 1 quart bottles of oil - new
o 1 pint of power steering fluid
o 2 12v cigarette-lighter style work lights (30 year old incandescent things)
o 1 tarp
o 8 canvas bags
o a "ball" of grocery store plastic bags (like a plastic bag full of plastic bags)
o 1 squeegee
o 1 50 year old box with ratchet & sockets
o 4 blankets
o 2-3 weeks worth of postal mail
o 3 cardboard boxes holding all this stuff
It's like the start of a bug out pack, except missing everything useful. Or a road trip kit for a car that never sees road trips driven by someone who doesn't know how to fix a car. it's all bullshit that just sits there wasting gas, looking awful, ruining the trunk carpet. Bah.
We took the '99 Suburban, transfer case repaired and with a fresh tuneup on it. I kept my speed to 65mph to help improve fuel economy, and after netting over 700 miles to a tank I was feeling pretty good about its performance. Unfortunately that was on 37 gallons of gas (not quite but almost a full tank) so economy was only about 19mpg. Can't really expect more, but I was hoping for it. The diesel will break 20 at 60mph on its 3-speed so I hoped with an extra gear and a light foot the gas one would too, but no such luck. Oh well.
This trip did a LOT on selling me on the '99... it was so comfortable and quiet and easy to drive it made getting 19mpg almost worth it. Man, the '99 is just a really great truck. I am really happy with it.
Last edited by thesameguy; April 6th, 2015 at 09:12 AM.
What is the purpose for those shitty gutters?
Stormwater collection and there was some reason (other infrastructure, cost, no need for 99% of the year, whatever) that they couldn't/wouldn't do an underground system, like normal. You see that arrangement all over SoCal and occasionally up here.
Whoomah!
I think the idea was to handle runoff from the San Bernadino Mountains, but those types of rains are few and far between (decades?) and the "system" is just horribly cheaply implemented. I guess we are talking about the budget area of SoCal so that might have something to do with it. I really don't know. All I know is that streets leading away from the mountains have these crazy gutters and they wreck cars.
Yeah. but they're *really bad* in this area. Most every intersection - it's a surprise when you cross a street that doesn't require slowing to a near-stop.Originally Posted by Random
Just one more reason why I can't grasp the desire to live there.
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