At this point, I don't even remember. I think it was just over 10k. At least it only had ~30k miles on it when I got it, LOL, like that makes it better - I've got 1500 left to pay it off, though.

I'm pretty sure it's not the radiator. Hoping it's just a hose. At least it hasn't overheated

[Edited on October 4, 2013 at 4:02 PM. Reason : ]

10/4/2013 4:01:25 PM

Heh, I'm the guy who lost his s2000 after 8 days with it due to a friends inability to drive (one car highway accident). Twas a shame - 2002, old man owned, pristine, 32k miles for $13.5k in the summer of 2012 - was a good deal too (at least I got $17.5k from Geico...and a vicious concussion/st of bruises).

Onto a quirk filled 2000 BMW M Coupe now.

10/4/2013 8:28:11 PM

Let me know if you need help with the s2k. I'm sure its a hose connection when you put the head back on. It beats welding rockers back on.

10/5/2013 11:01:08 AM

^ Thanks man. I may definitely have to take you up on that offer.

10/6/2013 1:11:55 AM

Swapped batteries on the Lotus today. It's been sitting for almost two months because the battery was completely and totally dead. Couldn't even jumpstart the car anymore.

Funny thing, when I swapped them today, its the first time I noticed the OEM battery wasn't in there. The previous owner had replaced the tiny OEM battery with a MONSTER interstate battery that weighs like 40 pounds.

I replaced it with a Braille B14115 which weighs 11.5lbs.

And to end my weekly ordeal of the battery dying after a week of not driving the car, I also put in a manual battery kill switch from sector 111 which I was happy to spring the cash for since it included a gorgeous and simple mounting bracket for the battery (saving me an entire weekend of fabrication and tool purchases).

So far so good, only downside is having to manually tune the radio since it no longer stores the stations after hitting the kill switch (but then, who listens to the radio in a Lotus anyway?)

[Edited on October 6, 2013 at 2:34 AM. Reason : "]

10/6/2013 2:33:55 AM

Quote :

"battery that weighs like 40 pounds."

good lord

10/6/2013 2:36:54 AM

hopefully you have better luck with the Braille batteries than every one I have ever delt with, all they do it re package batteries and up the price. If you ever need to replace it jsut go get the deka (which the braille is actually) from batteries plus, it will be cheaper and they warrenty them...

10/6/2013 12:17:02 PM

^Well shit, yep its a repackaged ETX14 from Deka. Fortunately I got mine off Amazon, so I only paid about 25 bucks more.

And yes, they have a very very short drain life, which is why I got the cut switch. In the Lotus, from Lotustalk folks, you get about 6 days before they lose too much to crank the car.

10/6/2013 12:52:50 PM

Anyone know where I can buy (around Raleigh) some German made Castrol synthetic oil? Obviously auto part stores don't carry it, but the only other place I can think of that may have it is T Hoff (which isn't open today).

Any help is appreciated.

10/6/2013 1:20:04 PM

are you talking about the 10w-60 castrol edge for bmw? napa (at least up here in NoVA) carries liqui-moly 10w-60, which i've found to be a much better and cheaper oil

10/6/2013 3:34:18 PM

I just buy the BMW LL-01 or whatever approved Castrol Edge from the auto parts stores. Am I doing something wrong?

10/6/2013 6:55:18 PM

Quote :

"Heh, I'm the guy who lost his s2000 after 8 days with it due to a friends inability to drive (one car highway accident). Twas a shame - 2002, old man owned, pristine, 32k miles for $13.5k in the summer of 2012 - was a good deal too (at least I got $17.5k from Geico...and a vicious concussion/st of bruises). "

What was the fallout from that...in terms of who paid for what, your relationship with your friend and you insurance costs?

10/6/2013 7:01:26 PM

^^ the M models and z8 require 10w-60, which you won't find at most auto parts stores. the n54/55 doesn't use the same oil to my knowledge

10/6/2013 7:40:17 PM

I'm in the middle of building a radar detector into the rear headrest of my car. It's the escort "smartradar" so in addition to having a remote display like all the others have as an option, it has bluetooth alerts to android. As you saw farther back in the thread, my car didn't come with nav so I put in a nexus 7 tablet. I'll have the tablet to display the alerts from my detector and from the gps database for cameras and speed traps. It should turn out well. I used cat5 as my "bus" so I can use nice rj45 jacks and connectors as quick connectors. All power and remote functions in a single cable

10/6/2013 8:18:33 PM

THERES NO SUCH THING AS SPEED TRAPS.

10/7/2013 1:01:54 AM

Quote :

"are you talking about the 10w-60 castrol edge for bmw? napa (at least up here in NoVA) carries liqui-moly 10w-60, which i've found to be a much better and cheaper oil"

Nah, but thanks for replying. I was talking about 0w-30 Castrol synthetic, the green stuff. And go figure that Autozone is "known" to carry it, since that was the one place I didn't check while out yesterday. Bought 6 quarts there last night.

10/7/2013 8:30:10 AM

^ yeah I think that's the stuff I normally buy. It's a killer deal when you get 5 quarts + a K&N oil filter for like $35, then return the oil filter for store credit

10/7/2013 9:54:40 AM

Dammit where is that deal? lol. I paid $49 including tax for 6 quarts.

10/7/2013 9:58:20 AM

new defroster vents and hoses

10/7/2013 10:27:55 AM

Quote :

"Dammit where is that deal? lol. I paid $49 including tax for 6 quarts."

Seems like they do it every 3-4 months. It's one of their "oil change specials." I normally just get two of them at a time (in the past so i could stock up, these days cause my car takes 7 quarts of oil!)

Here's an example: http://slickdeals.net/f/6248726-oil-change-specials-at-advanced-auto-parts-good-through-oct-2 (the slickdeals listing doesn't mention Castrol but it's always included)

Looks like it might still be active: 5 quarts of Castrol Edge + filter (the manufacturer varies) for $33

https://www.autozone.com/images/MEDIA_ProductCatalog/m1460006_p13-fy12-rebate.pdf
http://tinyurl.com/pkhv7f5

[Edited on October 7, 2013 at 10:46 AM. Reason : ]

10/7/2013 10:43:28 AM

thanks for the tip

10/7/2013 1:25:54 PM

Quote :

"THERES NO SUCH THING AS SPEED TRAPS."

haha, that's a good one

10/7/2013 5:14:08 PM

"lately" as in a week and some ago. i forgot to post.



ran my first tandem comp and placed 3rd behind two Pro-Am guys. in fact, 8 of the 14 drivers/cars were Pro-Am. it was fun.



i'm going to another event this saturday if anyone wants come shit around and roast tires.


[Edited on October 7, 2013 at 8:04 PM. Reason : .]

10/7/2013 8:01:16 PM

^ Synapse ^

Thanks for the shout out. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt. With respect to insurance, as insurance follows the car and not the driver, it fell on my insurance. The car was totaled so I received a pay out of $17,500. My friend paid my $500 deductible and the $600 registration I paid 3-4 days before the crash (in KY, cars are considered property and you need to pay a small property tax when registering the first time). So, in total, he paid my in a timely fashion and covered my costs. As I never really had a like for like insurance before/after, I'm not sure how it impacted my rates, but if they have gone up it has been negligible at best. A week after the s2000 incident, someone drunkenly ran into my parked audi avant on a street so I had two non-moving accidents in a week ( ). In the end, I really don't believe my rates went up at all, and if they did, not by much at all. I doubt adjusters/insurance has any real say, but they were sympathetic and my friend called them to admit total fault in the accident. We're still cool but it's a little bit different I guess.

10/7/2013 9:36:40 PM

idea for my paint job:



+


[Edited on October 8, 2013 at 10:57 PM. Reason : ]

10/8/2013 10:55:30 PM

Oil change for both Integra and BRZ. Also rotated the BRZ's tires.

Yes I'm quite the mechanic

10/9/2013 8:10:48 AM

My '92 Civic VX started making a horrible screeching noise on the way home the other night, sounded like a bad belt and sure enough the alternator belt was shredding (it has individual belts for each accessory, just alternator and AC since there's no power steering). I replaced it and planned to replace the AC belt too since I had to take it off anyways, but then I found out although its easy to get off the pulley, the AC belt goes around a freaking motor mount. Thanks Obama!

Now its still making a bad noise, so I'm going to try taking the AC belt off and see if that is the noise...it didn't look too bad but it is old. If that stops the noise I guess I'll have to unbolt the motor to get the new belt in, ugh. Not sure what it is if its not the AC belt...the noise definitely changes when I turn the AC on, so hopefully that's the issue.

10/9/2013 10:34:26 AM

^do you have the toolery to swap the belt? I'd just cut it off and roll on, brotha.

10/10/2013 7:27:07 AM

replaced the evap solenoid vent valve on my truck. a 20 minute job on most GM pickups, but i had to get the oddball version with the extended cab but the crew cab bed. that means the damn vent valve is hidden on top of the frame rail near the gas tank and beside a cab mounting bracket and you need spaghetti hands to get ahold of it. on top of that, GM recognized how shitty the original vent and filter was, so they swapped it to a smaller version with a remote filter that you've got to locate up on top of the transmission and run heater hose to it. pain in the ass.

now i've gotta put a new front motor mount on my wife's TL.

10/13/2013 8:00:37 AM

^^ Yup, I'm going to try disconnecting the AC belt and zip-tieing it out of the way. Hopefully AC is the problem. If the noise continues with the AC disconnected, I'm worried it could be timing belt related. I'm going to take the cover off the timing belt and check it out regardless.

I guess the timing belt wouldn't be a horrible idea to do anyways, since I don't know when it was done last heh.

10/13/2013 8:25:22 AM

motor mount is done. bit of a PITA, but it was mainly because it was my first time. only jack i had was some janky $20 Torin POS i got from a yard sale, so that sucked too. a 3/8" drive wobble extension would've helped too. i had to use a universal. all my good stuff is still in my dad's shop in Goldsboro until i can get my own built. it'd be easier to do again now that i know what i'm doing.

10/13/2013 2:04:27 PM

Threw new tires on the bike, changed the oil, and replaced the battery. Now I just gotta redo some of the wiring on the charging system.

10/13/2013 5:56:25 PM

Took the AC belt off the Civic tonight, and its definitely the source of the metallic noise. Cut it off for now, I'll diagnose the actual source of the issue (compressor, belt itself?) later when I'm not lazy heh. At least its winter.

10/14/2013 8:40:06 PM

removed this from my engine:



[Edited on October 15, 2013 at 1:51 AM. Reason : timing chain guide]

10/15/2013 1:51:22 AM

New front brakes on the Hoe Runner.

10/15/2013 4:48:48 PM

^^ lol you're supposed to remove that BEFORE you break it!

10/15/2013 5:06:08 PM

I've got a lot to learn about this car still. I just knew that popcorn sound wasn't a good thing

10/15/2013 6:24:31 PM

did moar sideways things this past weekend. you RWD guys should grab a few cheap wheels/tires off craigslist and come destroy them sometime! it's a blast.

10/15/2013 9:00:09 PM

In the process of replacing the stator on the Harley as well as the rocker box gaskets..Changes the oil and rotated the tires on the wrx...

10/15/2013 9:25:16 PM

^^ NICE!

What kind of tires do you guys put on those things? I can't imagine them being terribly sticky.

[Edited on October 15, 2013 at 10:54 PM. Reason : ]

10/15/2013 10:54:45 PM

the past two events i've been using 255/40/17 federal 595ss tires. they have a plenty of grip and wear very evenly. no chunking or delaminating, just smooth wear right down to the cords.

as much as i like them, i'll probably use these other random 255/40s laying around my garage for the next couple of events. buying new tires is kinda expensive

[Edited on October 16, 2013 at 6:37 AM. Reason : .]

10/16/2013 6:36:45 AM

^^^^Piedmont!

[Edited on October 16, 2013 at 7:05 AM. Reason : =]

10/16/2013 7:05:27 AM

^^ Gotcha - Always been curious, but too lazy to look it up when i think about it

10/16/2013 9:42:23 PM

Replaced the servo that controls the heat blend door on my 4Runner. I hate working under the dash and made sure to do plenty of cussing throughout the 20 minute process.

Heard clicking behind dash any time I tried to turn the AC warmer than about 68 degrees this summer. I left the AC set to 67 degrees and regulated the temp by turning the fan up or down and occasionally cycling the AC off when it got too cold. I wasn't too worried about it until I tried to turn on the heat and heard the same clicking accompanied by no heat. $120 for what amounts to an electric motor, three plastic gears, one metal gear, and a plastic casing. Still cheaper than a new truck and I got the heat back.

[Edited on October 17, 2013 at 1:27 PM. Reason : l]

10/17/2013 1:25:32 PM

got a code on my colorado for camshaft/crankshaft.

replaced both sensors as well as the actuator solenoid and thermostat.

the bastard is throwing the EXACT same code after replacing all that stuff.

no one around can figured it out so its off to the stealership tomorrow.

10/17/2013 3:23:37 PM

Replaced the charging harness and put a switched accessory fuse panel on the bike.

10/18/2013 11:13:19 AM

Replaced water pump, radiator, thermostat, bottom hose and steering gear box on the 80 F-100.

10/20/2013 8:14:05 PM

turns out my timing chain was broken.

Chevrolet is replacing it free of charge under their warranty.

random but glad it got resolved cost free.

10/21/2013 1:26:09 AM

Hard topped the jeep for winter.

10/21/2013 6:12:51 AM

- sold civic Friday
- drove big red home from work, started running funny. Went for a trip back to town and it died driving down road... Here's hoping it's the fuel control actuator on the injection pump.

10/21/2013 7:24:31 AM