Thanksgiving maintenance

Thanksgiving weekend - with temps in the low 60s here in Western New York - has been an opportunity to get some maintenance done. Front brakes on the 750Li were down to the warning light so they got new pads and rotors - driver's side was worn noticeably more than passenger, and both sides had a good bit of meat left on the pads but (a) better to replace too soon than too late and (b) the warning every time I started the car was driving me nuts. I also took the opportunity to replace the auto transmission pan (with integrated filter and magnets) and fluid - at least the 5.5 quarts that drained from the pan. 116k on the car, 56k on the fluid, original pan. The fluid wasn't very nasty but there was a decent coating of thick black sediment on the inside of the pan. After a quick test drive the transmission seems to shift a bit more smoothly; the test will be after a long (1+ hour) highway drive to see if it shifts hard right after that.

Snows got swapped over onto the 750Li as well as the wife's XC90.

And I had sinus surgery the Friday before Thanksgiving to clear my upper sinuses. For the first time in over 2 years I can actually smell Food tastes so different when you can smell. Keeping it car related, I knew it was a problem when I was tracking my departed beater 951 and my instructor asked about the gas smell, I said "What gas smell?" - the tank overflow as leaking into the cabin and I couldn't smell it Not being able to smell gas, burning oil, etc. on track probably isn't real safe, right?

Anyone else do car maintenance this weekend?

laid a buttload of tile, unfortunately. Am looking forward to the day when car maintenance/upgrades are again part of my weekends.

Oh, and congrats on getting your sniffer working again. Welcome back to the world of farts, gasoline, cigarette smoke, and perfume. I love this place!

Yeah, I did a water pump and power-steering pump on my Mom's GRAND MArquis, on Friday. And it has been cold rainy and dreary ever since.

Nope, the only thing I did is eat for 4 days.

Maintenance will happen next weekend, after I fast for a week.

Not so much maintenance as the annual winter prep ritual. Fuel stabilizer, bring paint and chemicals inside before the freeze... didn't get heat installed in the shop this year . Put tools away, actually found a few that were MIA... hey, I been lookin' for that. Still need a final trip to the scrapyard.

Kind of a bummer, another season gone and not enough done.

Decided to change the belts on my 95 mazda 626. Sounds easy enough, right? It gets a lot harder when you break the lower alternator mounting bolt. I was hoping to use the last of our 60 degree days to wash / wax the cars, but instead a quick belt-swap turned into a two day adventure!!

I went up north to mom & dad's this weekend. Brought the relatively uniteresting 2010 Mazda3 - first road trip I've done in what is basically the wife's commuterator and I really enjoyed it.

Only car-related stuff I did was help my dad bleed the clutch on his Sunbeam Tiger restoration project. It's been a while since I last was his "pump pump, hold" assistant.

Got freshly turned rotors on the Mazda3, and my winter wheels and tires on. Not as productive as I would like on a vehicular level, but feels good to have it done. Also, non warped rotors are awesome.

Just checked the tire pressure on a bunch of cars. Buffed out a paint scrape on a buddy's S10 Friday, said buddy did oil change in my garage using my tools and jack & stands today. Cooking/eating turkey day dinner and legoland for my son's bday, drove in the $1300 craigslist LS400 I dragged home last April 300 commendable miles and some change with little drama and 23.5mpg the whole time. Put together some lego sets with my son. Unpacked/went through some clothes a little (moved in a few weeks ago) Did clean the NASTY decorative pond in the backyard and trim some palm trees (prickly PITA)

Put a rebuilt head on the 944. Still waiting for another few parts to finish the job.

After that, cleaned the garage pretty thoroughly. Looks good.

Got the trans sorted on the 72 Ranchero, she's alive...

Got the LSD into the Mustang Challenger.

Not too bad, I feel like some gains were made

fpund electrical gremlins in a motor swapped 89 crx si. worked on replacing carfpets and interior in a 79 corvette. mounted new audio in the daily 99 camry. ate a lot, saw the family, slept in.

and raked a crap ton of leaves.

michael

Rotator cuff issues are keeping me sidelined at the moment. In case anyone cares it is probably the 3rd most painful thing I have had to deal with.

BUT I managed to sort out my tools that were scattered in different locations and organize my collection of fluids spray bottles etc. I also did a wiring diagram for my 924s MS project. I had no done anything with it for a while and when I went back to it I was lost. SO I decided to put it all down on paper how all the sensors wire back in to the stock harness and how that wires back to the MS.

New radio in the Saturn, worked on the exhaust manifolds for the challenge car. Read up on speedometer wiring.

Did tie rods, steering rack boots, balljoints, and one valve cover gasket on the Legacy. I think they needed it when I bought the car earlier this year and rallycross hasn't helped.

Ever notice when you have to do the same project on both sides of the car, the first side lulls you into a false sense of security? The passenger ball joint took a few minutes to remove and replace. The drivers side took several hours.

Car still leaks oil from a lot of other places, but don't have time to pull the engine and regasket it before salt hits the roads, so I'll just have to keep a close eye on the oil level all winter.

I paid to get the ZX-2 fixed early in the week when the alternator took a dump.

Then, I helped my sister back-flush the heater core in her Taurus. The local shop quoted $1800 for a new heater core, oil pan (it's a little rusty), and water pump to fix the no heat problem. $5 worth of hose adapters and she now has nice hot heat.

I really need to get moving on the Allis Chalmers G refurb.

Swapped the mangled, saggy dash out of the Rallycross Neon with the ungodly nasty dash from the parts car. I vacuumed about a cubic foot of squirrel/chipmunk/rat/mouse nest out of the heater box and discovered that whoever had this parts car ran water through it which froze and burst a copper pipe in the heater core. Soldered that up, pulled the A/C stuff out of the heater box, and car now has a dash that shouldn't rattle too much. The real PITA was that I had to take the passenger door off the car to disconnect the wiring harness, so I could get the under-dash installed.

I finally remembered to put hub caps on the TDI's snow wheels... and moved some of the car tools from the garage to attic storage in hopes of getting the GT6 on dollies so the TDI can fit inside as well. Right now, I'm guessing that'll happen over Christmas break.

Other than that... plumbing, electrical, and gas-piping...

I replaced the fluids that the Volvo used on a trip to Chicago and back (2 quarts of oil burned in under 1k miles). Attempted to fix the transmission leak that was dumping a quart of fluid every 300 miles or so. Ziptied the plug that fills the hole in the radiator where earlier models had a coolant temp sensor so it won't pop out again and dump all the coolant while I am an hour away from home.

I also drove the Miata and enjoyed the fact that it needed no maintenance at all.

eastsidemav wrote: Did tie rods, steering rack boots, balljoints, and one valve cover gasket on the Legacy. I think they needed it when I bought the car earlier this year and rallycross hasn't helped.

That reminds me...I need to do tie rod ends and ball joints on the Miata this winter. As well as brakes, new engine and rear diff. By the spring it will be a whole new car .

shoot... 22 hours of overtime and its back to the daily grind.