What have you done to your car today?

[Murcie_LP640]

Finally got around to installing the remote central locking on "VTEC Yo!" Wasn't terribly difficult. This week I'll probably be putting my Rockford Fosgate 6" speakers in the front doors, but keeping the grilles OEM. Also going to need a new pair of 6x9s if I want to do the rear parcel shelf, but if I do that's going to be a fair way down the road.

 

[RVDNuT374]

Two weeks ago, I swapped the old power steering fluid out because it smelled like horribly burnt plastic. Today the old battery finally gave out after over 6 years of service so I replaced it with another Walmart EverStart. Next in the not too distant future is new rear tires.

 

[PureAwesomeness]

Two days ago I took my BMW 525 into the dealer to have its new ABS control module coded.Now I don't have any more warning lights when I drive it.
Today I replaced the center heating vent . The old one was cracked on one side so I found a replacement on an online auction and swapped it over today. 30 minute job after I had figured out how to get at it (all the instructions online were for LHD models).
Learning that especially with BMWs you save a hell of a lot of money if you buy the parts yourself.

 

[GTMail]

Nothing today but here's what happened in the last few months:
S4-Warranty expired so I (with some help) disabled the top speed limiter.
- New inter cooler and exhaust

Sky- New wheels and tires went on last week. She looks mean now. Tires are the same you find on the Z06 Corvette.
- Installed new radiator and some other bits to make help the car handle the turbo upgrade better.
- Fixed the broken parking brake.
- Got the bumper fixed because of the broken parking brake.

Other Cars
Tacoma- New ratio head unit and speakers.
Mercury Mystique(gifted from relatives for free)- Cracked the block messing around with it and now sits in the garage collecting dust where it belongs.

 

[Adamgp]

Hit a patch of black ice and hit an SUV in front of me. He was fine, but I got a trailer hitch size hole in my license plate and bumper.

 

[motortrend]

I hated the rattle sound the plate cover made when I closed the trunk plus it looked bad

so I went and removed it

And a lot of dirt had accumulated below

So I cleaned it:

And put it all back together, now it looks much better, and it closes with a thump and no rattles:

 

[CyborgGT]

Bought the JDM tyte headlights I posted above. Gorgeous

They just need ballasts and harnesses

 

[TheBook]

Speaking of headlights, I replaced mine today. One was out, so I figured I might as well replace both while I was messing with it.

 

[Anna+Reece]

What have I done to my car today?

I sold it. Goodbye 3000GT.

 

[Punknoodle]

Speaking of headlights, I replaced mine today. One was out, so I figured I might as well replace both while I was messing with it.

Normally the best idea with Halogens or you will probably get different colour headlights, which would look poo.

 

[bennyrrr]

Took it out into the dunes of Pismo Beach and had a ball.

 

[Dennisch]

Had to jumpstart my girlfriends 1987 Suzuki Alto. Because she, after having the car for 4 years now, still doesn't know how to use the choke properly.

And I filled my own car up with used oil. It has no use anymore to buy fresh oil, as it burns 2 liter of it in about 500km. Time to get me a new car.

 

[Doth1s]

I cracked my front bumper on a deer's backside no to long ago, so I pulled out the drill and some zip-ties and took care of that problem

 

[nobuffalo]

This might be better suited in the questionable modifications thread...

The weight will be properly balanced and a set of wheels strapped aboard for the long haul.

 

[CyborgGT]

^ I'm wanting to put a tow hitch for a small trailer on my Accord. Use it for hauling parts, as often as friends and I go to the junkyard.

Bought the JDM tyte headlights I posted above. Gorgeous

They just need ballasts and harnesses

Just placed an order for Morimoto 3-Five (35 watt) ballasts and relay harness. I can hardly wait to get these babies installed!

 

[PureAwesomeness]

My car had this old fart wooden trim which no-one in my family liked.

So I bought some 3M brushed titanium vinyl wrap and redid the whole interior.

Pretty happy with the results but I bust one of the trim clips in the process so I'll have to pick one up from the dealer next time I get a chance.

 

[hawkeye122]

That actually looks really nice! Well done. I would have gone for a Super-Gloss Black or Fake Carbon look.

I replaced my headlight that had gone out in my Tracker. Obviously, I got the $8 ones. Unsurprisingly, they aren't any brighter than the OEM ones. Still really dont like driving at night.

Took my Mums Camry in for a Routine Service (Minus Tyre rotation. For $20, Ill get my friends to help me and have it done in 2 minutes.) Oil, Air Filter, Belts, Brake Fluid, Power Steering Fluid. Now it's ready for the long haul to LA this weekend.

 

[Joey D]

I had 4 new snow tires put on my car today under warranty. For the past two weeks the tire shop could not get wheels balanced at all no matter what they tried. They even replaced my hub rings and lug nuts to rule those out. Finally the manage just told them to put a new set of tires on the car and be done with it. So they did. No more horrid vibration!

 

[MCNAGTROC]

added JDM egoist leather kickplates and bought some nismo diff fluid

 

[Super T]

Completely overhauled the rear brakes on the Mini. New shoes, return springs, adjusters and to top it all off a nice shiney lightweight set of drums...



Also spent a fair amount of time shouting at various bits of the dash that were in the way of my preferred route for the internal bonnet release cable that I was fitting, considered sticking with the external release but as I've also got a new front grille that doesn't have the opening for the external release I spent more time argueing with the dash, several hours and small cuts to the hands later its all done.

Tomorrows project will be fitting uprated front subframe bushes, a semi solid tower mount kit including alloy top bushes and poly lower ones, have had the alloy top and bottom and not a fan of the increased noise transmitted through the bulkhead, hopefully this semi solid kit will be a bit quieter, the damn things noisy enough already.

 

[Slick Rick]

That actually looks really nice! Well done. I would have gone for a Super-Gloss Black or Fake Carbon look.

Big improvement but I agree, gloss black would have looked better.. My dad has got a few scratches on his 3 series interior and im going to spray the silver trim pieces gloss black.

 

[PureAwesomeness]

Big improvement but I agree, gloss black would have looked better.. My dad has got a few scratches on his 3 series interior and im going to spray the silver trim pieces gloss black.

Hmmm, I guess I thought the trim is supposed to act as an accent to the otherwise all black interior. Still, the good thing about the vinyl wrap is I can always peel it off and do it in another colour if I change my mind. I'd definitely recommend the wrap over spraying trim. It might take marginally more skill to do but the original trim will be left in tact.

I would never let my son near my car's interior with a spray can!

 

[Perfect Balance]

I had 4 new snow tires put on my car today under warranty. For the past two weeks the tire shop could not get wheels balanced at all no matter what they tried. They even replaced my hub rings and lug nuts to rule those out. Finally the manage just told them to put a new set of tires on the car and be done with it. So they did. No more horrid vibration!

They're snow tires. They always feel like crap. It's what they do, but they work in snow so you live with it. Anytime we get a customer who requests snow tires on their car, we pretty much tell them ahead of time that it's pretty likely that they're going to ride like 🤬. They are almost always impossible to perform a roadforce balance on because they're typically so out of round, even when brand new.

 

[Joey D]

They're snow tires. They always feel like crap. It's what they do, but they work in snow so you live with it. Anytime we get a customer who requests snow tires on their car, we pretty much tell them ahead of time that it's pretty likely that they're going to ride like 🤬. They are almost always impossible to perform a roadforce balance on because they're typically so out of round, even when brand new.

Thing was though they were fine up until about a month ago. I went in originally just thinking the tape weight fell off and that's when it all started. They replaced everything they could and it was still bad, so the manager said they'd replace them. I wasn't going to argue with new snow tires at the end of the season, it was like getting this winter for free.

I have Michelin Pilot Alpin PA3's too so they are more performance oriented snow tire which seems to be stabler the the Hankook iPikes I had on the Cooper. Discount told me the roadforced them but I don't know, but the new ones work fine and feel pretty smooth. I expect a little vibration and I'll live with that, but it was getting pretty ridiculous.

 

[Perfect Balance]

I have Michelin Pilot Alpin PA3's too so they are more performance oriented snow tire which seems to be stabler the the Hankook iPikes I had on the Cooper. Discount told me the roadforced them but I don't know, but the new ones work fine and feel pretty smooth. I expect a little vibration and I'll live with that, but it was getting pretty ridiculous.

Something people don't really know is that a road force balance is pretty much just a regular balance but it checks for imperfections in the "roundness" of the tires/variations in sidewall stiffness. If they are within a certain spec, you simply perform a regular balance, if they are over whatever spec, then you run the machines' processes which finds the lowest point of the rim and matches it with the highest point on the tire, thus creating a smoother ride, but in reality, unless your wheels are bent, there's pretty much nothing you can do to fix the variation, and you've simply got a bad tire. The only real benefit of a roadforce balance is the ability to simply reduce vibration of a tire mounted on a bent rim. Which is why I said most snow tires can't be roadforce balanced. They are frequently too out of round even on a perfectly straight rim, and nothing can be done other than replacing the tire.

 

[PureAwesomeness]

Made an aux. input for my stereo by cutting wires that connected to the tape deck. Think I can live without a functioning tape deck!

 

[DJones]

Made an aux. input for my stereo by cutting wires that connected to the tape deck. Think I can live without a functioning tape deck!

Hmmmm this sounds interesting. What all did you have to buy for this to work/what did you use? I have my first free saturday evening in weeks coming up and I want to do something productive. 👍

 

[PureAwesomeness]

Hmmmm this sounds interesting. What all did you have to buy for this to work/what did you use? I have my first free saturday evening in weeks coming up and I want to do something productive. 👍

Unless you have a BMW, I'm not sure this will be much use to you.

Basically, I took one of these RCA-3.5mm audio cables...

cut off the RCA ends and separated the positive and negative wires inside.

Then I disconnected this connection from the back of the headunit.

Found the audio output lines from the tape deck (blue/black, blue/brown, yellow/black, yellow, brown) and cut them.

Then I connected the 3.5mm audio cable to the audio output lines using these:

It cost me no more than a few bucks and a few hours of my time. I could actually have done it in about 30 minutes but my stereo headunit is stuck in the dash thanks to a previous owner damaging the attaching screws.

 

[DJones]

Unless you have a BMW, I'm not sure this will be much use to you.

Basically, I took one of these RCA-3.5mm audio cables...

cut off the RCA ends and separated the positive and negative wires inside.

Then I disconnected this connection from the back of the headunit.

Found the audio output lines from the tape deck (blue/black, blue/brown, yellow/black, yellow, brown) and cut them.

Then I connected the 3.5mm audio cable to the audio output lines using these:

It cost me no more than a few bucks and a few hours of my time. I could actually have done it in about 30 minutes but my stereo headunit is stuck in the dash thanks to a previous owner damaging the attaching screws.

Thanks! I think I'm going to do it today. Iv been making do with this cassette thing with an aux cable coming out of it. Now I can't wait to get home and do work. Thanks again!

 

[Punknoodle]

Spent a good part of the day on the car today. Jacked it up, on all fours corners, sat it on stands, started it, put it in gear with the handbrake on and released the clutch slowly to check out the driveshaft and diff mount etc, while a mechanic friend of mine watched. Doesn't seem to be any issue there, although it is difficult to tell using that method, as there is hardly any stress on it.. More investigation needed on that one. The diff is definately whining though, and I can not pin point the pulling problem it has or the knocking to the diff but hey - an LSD would be ace anyway, so what the hell.

In the mean time I removed the fuel tank and battery, ran in the new cable, and installed some new wires in to my engine bay from my ECU location in preparation for the Link ECU, and terminated them in to the appropriate plugs I'm using. Also fitted up some nice braided lines for the catch can and installed that too. I need to buy some cover clamps though to cover the ends of the braided line.

Just have to make a nice plate for the boot for the battery box to sit on, above the fuel tank wires, so it'll need to be spaced off the deck. More on that once I build it.