- 8,846
- Ottawa
- Automotive_Buff
My move to my new house has been rough, to say the least.
The week before inspection (new province):
Car fails because of:
-faded licence plate bulb
-flickering driver's side, side marker
-exhaust leak
$114 inspection fee down the drain.
Issues are resolved. Side marker breaks in my hand during removal. There is no official replacement bulb, you need to replace the entire housing. $150 on eBay, $400 at my stealership.
Decided to replace an LED bulb in there and glued the housing shut. It works.
The morning of inspection date:
Hit a deep, and I mean deep, channel near my work place. They had cut out a section of road near the sidewalk to lay down wiring, and there was no signage, it was in my bind spot past the hood of the car.
Massive underbody damage, and I heard something fly off the car when I was limping it back home on the freeway. I think it was an exhaust hanger or some other support structure.
Two weeks go by. I have studied the workshop manuals and my new shocks come in:
Stealership wanted $3200 CAD for driver's side and $2800 CAD for passenger side.
OEM spec remanufactured air struts. $720 CAD on eBay before shipping and DHL r̶a̶n̶s̶o̶m̶ handling fee.
Procedure of removal is simple. Setup of car on my jack stands was sketchy.
I get the old shocks out:
The creased shock on the left is the passenger side.
To rub salt into the wound, I find a split, and punctured, air supply line from the compressor to the passenger side strut.
My struts could have been fine all along. (I still have them)
I reconnected and sealed the broken supply line and buttoned the car up.
Calibrated the suspension using VCDS (vagcom):
All done:
Rides high in the front. Doesn't matter, car passes inspection. Another $114.
This was September to October. The car has ABS issues I dont want to get back into again which has depressed me to no end. So much so that I absent-mindedly put two gouges on the driver's door paint by moving my lawn mower (has a snow plow attached)
The ABS system could be acting up because the compressor cannot sustain such a high ride height. Easily fixed by a recalibration, however, at this point I'm too deep into my medical studies to even bother.
The car is just a glorified paper weight....
.... a safety certified paper weight
The week before inspection (new province):
Car fails because of:
-faded licence plate bulb
-flickering driver's side, side marker
-exhaust leak
$114 inspection fee down the drain.
Issues are resolved. Side marker breaks in my hand during removal. There is no official replacement bulb, you need to replace the entire housing. $150 on eBay, $400 at my stealership.
Decided to replace an LED bulb in there and glued the housing shut. It works.
The morning of inspection date:
Hit a deep, and I mean deep, channel near my work place. They had cut out a section of road near the sidewalk to lay down wiring, and there was no signage, it was in my bind spot past the hood of the car.
Massive underbody damage, and I heard something fly off the car when I was limping it back home on the freeway. I think it was an exhaust hanger or some other support structure.
Two weeks go by. I have studied the workshop manuals and my new shocks come in:
Stealership wanted $3200 CAD for driver's side and $2800 CAD for passenger side.
OEM spec remanufactured air struts. $720 CAD on eBay before shipping and DHL r̶a̶n̶s̶o̶m̶ handling fee.
Procedure of removal is simple. Setup of car on my jack stands was sketchy.
I get the old shocks out:
The creased shock on the left is the passenger side.
To rub salt into the wound, I find a split, and punctured, air supply line from the compressor to the passenger side strut.
My struts could have been fine all along. (I still have them)
I reconnected and sealed the broken supply line and buttoned the car up.
Calibrated the suspension using VCDS (vagcom):
All done:
Rides high in the front. Doesn't matter, car passes inspection. Another $114.
This was September to October. The car has ABS issues I dont want to get back into again which has depressed me to no end. So much so that I absent-mindedly put two gouges on the driver's door paint by moving my lawn mower (has a snow plow attached)
The ABS system could be acting up because the compressor cannot sustain such a high ride height. Easily fixed by a recalibration, however, at this point I'm too deep into my medical studies to even bother.
The car is just a glorified paper weight....
.... a safety certified paper weight
Last edited:
while taking advantage of nature's car wash.
