Chronic Car Buyers Anonymous (Archived)

xwesx

I like that color. Especially in those surroundings!

jmonroe1

au1994 said:

A few pics of the Jeep in its natural environment. All was good till we hit an absolute downpour on the way home. Did I mention the top was off?

————————————————
Geeze, that thing is gonna take a lot of soap to make it presentable outside of it natural environment.

jmonroe

explorerx4

@xwesx,
Did you take pictures during disassembly to figure how to put all that back together?

au1994

Thanks! I’m really enjoying it. The whole family is actually.

jmonroe1 said:

au1994 said:

A few pics of the Jeep in its natural environment. All was good till we hit an absolute downpour on the way home. Did I mention the top was off?

————————————————
Geeze, that thing is gonna take a lot of soap to make it presentable outside of it natural environment.

jmonroe

No joke. I ran it through a tunnel today but still have probably a good half hour to get in nooks and crannies that it missed. Being shaped like a brick doesn’t help with automatic washes. Lots of missed spots.

rayainsw

Sandy -
'..keep my head from hitting the ground luckily. '
So sorry you fell.
Hope you recover completely & quickly!
- Ray
I have come very close [ 73 next month ]

Sandman6472

Looks like the a/c is working just fine. Had a power outage on Sunday and a loud noise was coming from the compressor which was still turning. Turned off the a/c and turned the switches off in the circuit breaker. Let it sit for a few minutes before turning everything back on. Compressor was turning and cool air was coming out of the vents, noise was gone. Called "the guy" and made an appointment for Tuesday afternoon for them to come out to check the unit. Left the a/c on 79 and it kept that temp till Monday around 11. Decided to put the temp down to 78 and see what happens. By 4 pm, it was still at 78 and blowing cool when the air came out, so I canceled the a/c guy to come out since I figured he'd find nothing wrong.
Does anyone here know what happened and should I have them come out & check the unit? Got the York unit on July 21st of 2019 and they've come back twice when it wasn't cooling. Wondering if I should have them come out to clean the coils and give it a once over. Betting I'll get charged for that. Is this a good idea?

Sandman6472

I, for one, like your new truck and am warming up to those alloys. At first, I was on the fence and glad they weren't black but now, really starting to like everything about the new truck. Mazel with it!!

28firefighter

I think I missed the memo that people acquire cars and actually use them for their designed purpose?

au1994

28firefighter said:

I think I missed the memo that people acquire cars and actually use them for their designed purpose?

I thought if you didn’t they would come take them away. That’s why I never got a minivan, didn’t want to get more kids.

oldfarmer50

xwesx said:

Making progress on the Q7. I hope maybe to have it able to start tonight. If not, tomorrow "for sure!"

Reminder of where I was a couple weeks ago:






After cleanup and removal of the water pump and oil filter assembly from the front of the engine:



Then installation of the new adapter plate / oil cooler unit:



Followed by the EGR cooler and intake manifold. Oh, my, goodness! The intake manifold was so nasty inside (combination of carbon (soot) and oil is freakishly gnarly). I looked like a dalmatian when I came inside after cleaning it up as best I could. My wife wouldn't even let me wash the clothes I was wearing (literally - I had to throw them out).




I reinstalled a fuel line and the oil cooler assembly after this as well. I mostly just have the final bit of the air intake, a bunch of wires and hoses, and a new oil dipstick to install now. Along with refilling and burping the coolant (important step to not forget!).

Very impressive work. What’s your background that makes you confident in taking apart such a complicated engine like that?

nyccarguy

@au1994

Very nice shots of the Wrangler hitting the trails hard! Next you’ll need the lift, leveling kit, & 37” tires that seem to be all the rage on the JL Facebook pages. Lol!

tjc78

@28firefighter said:
I think I missed the memo that people acquire cars and actually use them for their designed purpose?

I can tell you I’ll be using exactly .25% of the RAM’s capabilities at least weekly. 😎

tjc78

@xwesx
You and Q are fearless. I’m pretty handy, but would dare touch a job like that.

corvette

tjc78 said:

@xwesx

You and Q are fearless. I’m pretty handy, but would dare touch a job like that.

You'll never learn if you don't try!

stickguy

I would learn that it was fun taking it apart but I had no hope of getting it back together.

I actually had the idea of a hobby for when I retire. I will buy some old car, and just take it completely apart. Not to restore, but just for the experience. No, I have not thought through what I would do with all that parts once I was done.

oh yeah, the key missing piece, I need to have a separate workshop/garage built first. My wife would not be happy with that project taking over the entire 2 car garage!

oldfarmer50

stickguy said:

I would learn that it was fun taking it apart but I had no hope of getting it back together.

I actually had the idea of a hobby for when I retire. I will buy some old car, and just take it completely apart. Not to restore, but just for the experience. No, I have not thought through what I would do with all that parts once I was done.

oh yeah, the key missing piece, I need to have a separate workshop/garage built first. My wife would not be happy with that project taking over the entire 2 car garage!

Don’t forget the fun you’ll have acquiring all the special tools you’ll need to start such a project. Whenever I get flights of fancy about getting into complicated auto repair I look into my island of misfit toys that I call a toolbox and immediately call the “guy”.

jmonroe1

oldfarmer50 said:

xwesx said:

Making progress on the Q7. I hope maybe to have it able to start tonight. If not, tomorrow "for sure!"

Reminder of where I was a couple weeks ago:






After cleanup and removal of the water pump and oil filter assembly from the front of the engine:



Then installation of the new adapter plate / oil cooler unit:



Followed by the EGR cooler and intake manifold. Oh, my, goodness! The intake manifold was so nasty inside (combination of carbon (soot) and oil is freakishly gnarly). I looked like a dalmatian when I came inside after cleaning it up as best I could. My wife wouldn't even let me wash the clothes I was wearing (literally - I had to throw them out).




I reinstalled a fuel line and the oil cooler assembly after this as well. I mostly just have the final bit of the air intake, a bunch of wires and hoses, and a new oil dipstick to install now. Along with refilling and burping the coolant (important step to not forget!).

Very impressive work. What’s your background that makes you confident in taking apart such a complicated engine like that?

————————————————
Yep, that’s a hellava job alright glad I’m not doing it. But, I bet you could help him to make sure the new oil dip stick is installed correctly. Just stay away from everything else.

jmonroe

sda

The top off and down pour reminds me of an experience I had years ago. I was living in Knoxville and a friend’s mom came to visit from out of town. She knew I had a Cadillac convertible and asked if I would be interested in driving her and her son to Gatlinburg in the convertible with the top down. Of course I would. It was a beautiful sunny day. We parked in Gatlinburg, left the top down and went up on the AerialTramway. I could see the car from the Tramway as we went up and then it poured down raining. I just knew the car was ruined. The interior was soaked. We had to assist the top going up as the rain made it too heavy and it rained inside again from the residual water caught on the inner top liner. Luckily I had towels in the trunk. We dried things off the best we could. Amazingly all electrics still worked and never gave an issue later. Lesson learned, top up when leaving the car. BTW it was a 70 DeVille that was my project car, my daily driver was a 76 Sunbird V6 5sp.

jmonroe1

sda said:

The top off and down pour reminds me of an experience I had years ago. I was living in Knoxville and a friend’s mom came to visit from out of town. She knew I had a Cadillac convertible and asked if I would be interested in driving her and her son to Gatlinburg in the convertible with the top down. Of course I would. It was a beautiful sunny day. We parked in Gatlinburg, left the top down and went up on the AerialTramway. I could see the car from the Tramway as we went up and then it poured down raining. I just knew the car was ruined. The interior was soaked. We had to assist the top going up as the rain made it too heavy and it rained inside again from the residual water caught on the inner top liner. Luckily I had towels in the trunk. We dried things off the best we could. Amazingly all electrics still worked and never gave an issue later. Lesson learned, top up when leaving the car. BTW it was a 70 DeVille that was my project car, my daily driver was a 76 Sunbird V6 5sp.

————————————————
Your story reminded me of when I was working my last stint as a consultant to my old employer about 4 years before I finally retired. A secretary in our department left her sunroof open when she got to work one morning. She also had a Caddy, a late model one, but her car was totaled due to all the damage caused by a heavy rain that afternoon. I don’t understand why factory installed sunroofs don’t automatically close when the ignition is turned off but after market installed sunroofs do automatically close when the ignition is turned off. At least that’s the way after market sunroofs worked for a handful of folks I know who had them installed years ago.

jmonroe

jmonroe1

Sandman6472 said:

Looks like the a/c is working just fine. Had a power outage on Sunday and a loud noise was coming from the compressor which was still turning. Turned off the a/c and turned the switches off in the circuit breaker. Let it sit for a few minutes before turning everything back on. Compressor was turning and cool air was coming out of the vents, noise was gone. Called "the guy" and made an appointment for Tuesday afternoon for them to come out to check the unit. Left the a/c on 79 and it kept that temp till Monday around 11. Decided to put the temp down to 78 and see what happens. By 4 pm, it was still at 78 and blowing cool when the air came out, so I canceled the a/c guy to come out since I figured he'd find nothing wrong.
Does anyone here know what happened and should I have them come out & check the unit? Got the York unit on July 21st of 2019 and they've come back twice when it wasn't cooling. Wondering if I should have them come out to clean the coils and give it a once over. Betting I'll get charged for that. Is this a good idea?

————————————————
When you have power outages prior to the electrical system shutting down there are usually very short periods of voltage spikes and or low voltage conditions. I don’t think any service company can tell you for sure what happened but having dirty coils was not the problem. So cleaning them, which is good for efficiency, will not solve the noise problem. Since the unit is operating fine now, I wouldn’t argue with success and I’d just leave sleeping dogs alone.

jmonroe

oldfarmer50

jmonroe1 said:

sda said:

The top off and down pour reminds me of an experience I had years ago. I was living in Knoxville and a friend’s mom came to visit from out of town. She knew I had a Cadillac convertible and asked if I would be interested in driving her and her son to Gatlinburg in the convertible with the top down. Of course I would. It was a beautiful sunny day. We parked in Gatlinburg, left the top down and went up on the AerialTramway. I could see the car from the Tramway as we went up and then it poured down raining. I just knew the car was ruined. The interior was soaked. We had to assist the top going up as the rain made it too heavy and it rained inside again from the residual water caught on the inner top liner. Luckily I had towels in the trunk. We dried things off the best we could. Amazingly all electrics still worked and never gave an issue later. Lesson learned, top up when leaving the car. BTW it was a 70 DeVille that was my project car, my daily driver was a 76 Sunbird V6 5sp.

————————————————
Your story reminded me of when I was working my last stint as a consultant to my old employer about 4 years before I finally retired. A secretary in our department left her sunroof open when she got to work one morning. She also had a Caddy, a late model one, but her car was totaled due to all the damage caused by a heavy rain that afternoon. I don’t understand why factory installed sunroofs don’t automatically close when the ignition is turned off but after market installed sunroofs do automatically close when the ignition is turned off. At least that’s the way after market sunroofs worked for a handful of folks I know who had them installed years ago.

jmonroe

A guy I used to work with had a new BMW 3 that would roll down it’s windows and open the sun roof without the fob being touched. It did this one night during a snow storm leaving the car with a foot of snow inside. He got rid of it shortly thereafter.

I left the Sebring top down once when it started to rain. I quickly ran out and put the top up before it got flooded but the next day I could already see mold starting to form on the leather. A good scrubbing with disinfectant and a day in the sun took care of what could have been a real mess.

tjc78

@Sandman6472
In our old house our AC unit did the same thing after a momentary power outage. Most AC compressors need a few minutes after shutting down to re-engage. You did the right thing shutting it down for a few minutes and then restarting.

@sda
I’m sure I’ve told it before but I left the sunroof open on our first Enclave overnight in the rain. Interior was soaked but luckily all was fine. The passenger seat occupancy sensor took a week to come back alive but that was it. I dried everything the best I could with towels and then put all the windows up and ran the heater at full blast for a few hours followed by windows open. This was on Christmas Day… wife was not amused.

nyccarguy

@oldfarmer50 said:
A guy I used to work with had a new BMW 3 that would roll down it’s windows and open the sun roof without the fob being touched. It did this one night during a snow storm leaving the car with a foot of snow inside. He got rid of it shortly thereafter.

I left the Sebring top down once when it started to rain. I quickly ran out and put the top up before it got flooded but the next day I could already see mold starting to form on the leather. A good scrubbing with disinfectant and a day in the sun took care of what could have been a real mess.

The same thing happened to my 328xi once. My friends thought I was crazy. The dealership said I must have had the fob in my pocket.

corvette

I remember reading that the E60 5-series would randomly do things like that and/or pop the trunk with no input on the key fob.

qbrozen

A small part of me is disappointed I missed out on buying this for $750. haha.

corvette

IIRC, one of the weird design characteristics of the Previa was that it had an auxiliary oil reservoir that would automatically pump in fresh top-up oil if the oil level got too low.

kyfdx

Previa?

tjc78

@qbrozen said:
A small part of me is disappointed I missed out on buying this for $750. haha.

Why do I like that??

explorerx4

Is that the small psychedelic mushroom part?

qbrozen

tjc78 said:

Why do I like that??

Maybe our repressed Jersey roots?

qbrozen

Weirder yet ... I really want to bid on this. FYI, it is AWD.

jmonroe1

@qbrozen said:
Weirder yet ... I really want to bid on this. FYI, it is AWD.

————————————————
Yikes, some folks just go through life looking for problems.

jmonroe

qbrozen

Other than the kids being embarrassed, I don't anticipate a problem using that in place of a golf cart around Myrtle.

qbrozen

Dang. Doesn't matter. They already got back to me with the report, and it has mechanical issues. The past week has been a real bust. Everything I try to bid on comes back with a problematic report. Only bid I let go through was on a yellow Honda Beat. But it ended at 597000 yen, which is more than I was willing to risk. The drool-inducing car today is an Alfa 155 Zagato model. Oh my. Starting bid is 1.55M yen.

oldfarmer50

qbrozen said:

Dang. Doesn't matter. They already got back to me with the report, and it has mechanical issues. The past week has been a real bust. Everything I try to bid on comes back with a problematic report. Only bid I let go through was on a yellow Honda Beat. But it ended at 597000 yen, which is more than I was willing to risk. The drool-inducing car today is an Alfa 155 Zagato model. Oh my. Starting bid is 1.55M yen.

You could branch out into JDM restorations at your dealership and make (lose) twice as much money.

qbrozen

@breld , so what’s the Macan story? Wife moved on already? Did they get back to you with a number on the Bronco?

au1994

qbrozen said:

Dang. Doesn't matter. They already got back to me with the report, and it has mechanical issues. The past week has been a real bust. Everything I try to bid on comes back with a problematic report. Only bid I let go through was on a yellow Honda Beat. But it ended at 597000 yen, which is more than I was willing to risk. The drool-inducing car today is an Alfa 155 Zagato model. Oh my. Starting bid is 1.55M yen.

I really hope you win that.

stickguy

Breld never looks back. He’s the guy in cannonball run ripping the mirror off. What’s behind is not important.

Michaell

stickguy said:

Breld never looks back. He’s the guy in cannonball run ripping the mirror off. What’s behind is not important.

Uh, it was the Gumball Rally where that occurred.

But, there are updates ... big updates. I'll leave them to @breld to discuss.

kyfdx

Michaell said:

stickguy said:

Breld never looks back. He’s the guy in cannonball run ripping the mirror off. What’s behind is not important.

Uh, it was the Gumball Rally where that occurred.

But, there are updates ... big updates. I'll leave them to @breld to discuss.

An infinitely better movie than Cannonball Run.

qbrozen

@au1994 said:
I really hope you win that.

Oh, I’m out before it began.

roadburner

jmonroe1 said:

sda said:

The top off and down pour reminds me of an experience I had years ago. I was living in Knoxville and a friend’s mom came to visit from out of town. She knew I had a Cadillac convertible and asked if I would be interested in driving her and her son to Gatlinburg in the convertible with the top down. Of course I would. It was a beautiful sunny day. We parked in Gatlinburg, left the top down and went up on the AerialTramway. I could see the car from the Tramway as we went up and then it poured down raining. I just knew the car was ruined. The interior was soaked. We had to assist the top going up as the rain made it too heavy and it rained inside again from the residual water caught on the inner top liner. Luckily I had towels in the trunk. We dried things off the best we could. Amazingly all electrics still worked and never gave an issue later. Lesson learned, top up when leaving the car. BTW it was a 70 DeVille that was my project car, my daily driver was a 76 Sunbird V6 5sp.

————————————————
Your story reminded me of when I was working my last stint as a consultant to my old employer about 4 years before I finally retired. A secretary in our department left her sunroof open when she got to work one morning. She also had a Caddy, a late model one, but her car was totaled due to all the damage caused by a heavy rain that afternoon. I don’t understand why factory installed sunroofs don’t automatically close when the ignition is turned off but after market installed sunroofs do automatically close when the ignition is turned off. At least that’s the way after market sunroofs worked for a handful of folks I know who had them installed years ago.

jmonroe

My son left the panoramic sunroof on the X3 open during a moderate rain. We dodged a bullet; I parked it outside with the sunroof, and all four side windows down for a couple of sunny days and all was well.

au1994

roadburner said:

jmonroe1 said:

sda said:

The top off and down pour reminds me of an experience I had years ago. I was living in Knoxville and a friend’s mom came to visit from out of town. She knew I had a Cadillac convertible and asked if I would be interested in driving her and her son to Gatlinburg in the convertible with the top down. Of course I would. It was a beautiful sunny day. We parked in Gatlinburg, left the top down and went up on the AerialTramway. I could see the car from the Tramway as we went up and then it poured down raining. I just knew the car was ruined. The interior was soaked. We had to assist the top going up as the rain made it too heavy and it rained inside again from the residual water caught on the inner top liner. Luckily I had towels in the trunk. We dried things off the best we could. Amazingly all electrics still worked and never gave an issue later. Lesson learned, top up when leaving the car. BTW it was a 70 DeVille that was my project car, my daily driver was a 76 Sunbird V6 5sp.

————————————————
Your story reminded me of when I was working my last stint as a consultant to my old employer about 4 years before I finally retired. A secretary in our department left her sunroof open when she got to work one morning. She also had a Caddy, a late model one, but her car was totaled due to all the damage caused by a heavy rain that afternoon. I don’t understand why factory installed sunroofs don’t automatically close when the ignition is turned off but after market installed sunroofs do automatically close when the ignition is turned off. At least that’s the way after market sunroofs worked for a handful of folks I know who had them installed years ago.

jmonroe

My son left the panoramic sunroof on the X3 open during a moderate rain. We dodged a bullet; I parked it outside with the sunroof, and all four side windows down for a couple of sunny days and all was well.

I shop vac’ed and left it out with the windows down and it seems to be ok, no stink.

explorerx4

Isn't a Wrangler designed to be hosed out?

au1994

explorerx4 said:

Isn't a Wrangler designed to be hosed out?

Yes, it has drain plugs and I pulled those. Most of the water had soaked into the carpet though.

My carpet is removable just not quite as easily as the older ones.

xwesx

explorerx4 said:

@xwesx,
Did you take pictures during disassembly to figure how to put all that back together?

Oh, yes I did! And, I actually had to refer to those photos last night to get me started on putting one of the vacuum system's hubs back on the engine. I'm getting very close now. Sadly, I finally dropped a couple bits of metal where I can't reach them, so I called it enough last night and will try to pick up a magnetic doohickey that can maybe reach down there to get them. If that fails, well.... they might be lost for a time....

corvette

Michaell said:

But, there are updates ... big updates. I'll leave them to @breld to discuss.

Apple has recognized him as a frequent car buyer and influencer and agreed to let him beta test the new Apple iCar?

au1994

Michaell said:

stickguy said:

Breld never looks back. He’s the guy in cannonball run ripping the mirror off. What’s behind is not important.

Uh, it was the Gumball Rally where that occurred.

But, there are updates ... big updates. I'll leave them to @breld to discuss.

Enquiring minds want to know!! I’m going to bet he turned the whole fleet.

xwesx

oldfarmer50 said:

What’s your background that makes you confident in taking apart such a complicated engine like that?

Well, I've done a heck of a lot of tinkering in my lifetime. As a kid, I would help my father with projects like this where he would change an engine in a tractor, or build some sort of contraption for making it easier to move irrigation pipes, or swap a transmission, ball joints, whatever. He also did some construction work like building barns, house additions, etc. etc. I just helped and observed.

When it was my turn to get after projects, I would just jump in. I got ahold of my Econoline back in 1991, and I pretty much turned over every single bolt and nut on it over the years, so I just lean on what I know. When it comes to something like this Audi, yes... there are lots of really complicated things on it. However, at the heart of them all are still mechanical systems, so I just take it one step at a time and work through the complications until I get to what I know. And, hopefully learn a little more along the way. I suppose it is just a desire to understand how things work rather than simply using them.

The rest is just necessity. When you barely have two nickels to rub together (and I've had a few times like that), and you want a car that not only runs, but runs well, then you are motivated to put some time and effort into it! I've certainly farmed out some jobs to professionals, but my preference is to do it myself.

I will add that having resources like YouTube available now are really quite fantastic. I remember back to jobs I did decades ago, like replacing the head gaskets in our 1996 Outback, and I wonder how I ever plucked up the courage to start tearing into that thing. At the time, the engine bay seemed like it was all wires and tubes (compared to the 1960's metal I was more accustomed to working on). However, enough digging, and it all became a lot more familiar.

ab348

xwesx said:

I will add that having resources like YouTube available now are really quite fantastic. I remember back to jobs I did decades ago, like replacing the head gaskets in our 1996 Outback, and I wonder how I ever plucked up the courage to start tearing into that thing.

I’m surprised that a course on replacing head gaskets on ‘90s Subarus wasn’t made a mandatory part of auto trade school curriculum back then..😁