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Happy Easter to me! Filled the tires and gave her a bath. Needs a fresh oil change and she'll be good for another summer. Already went for a short drive and everything feels right.
I've got the rear window visor off to replace the tape.
Thanks! Needs another wash with clay bar and wax, oil change (oil should be fine for a little while), and I'd like to get that AWR rear sway bar on soon.
Drained the tank with a long drive, filled up with 93 octane (usually use 87) just to see if there's any difference in performance/smoothness (suggestion from a guy I work with). Also cleared the P0420 code. And I can't use the A/C without the car overheating. No idea what's up with that, didn't do it last year. Might have to drain and replace the coolant, radiator looks fine. Should probably also find a way to isolate the intake from the engine bay heat. Wish I finished that hood scoop airbox now.
Edit: The car feels/sounds like it's misfiring when I first start it up. It doesn't register with the ECU to throw a code, though. Went to get a big screwdriver to see where it's coming from and it smoothed out. Bastard.
That lower control arm brace really makes a mess of oil changes. Got some Mobil 1 Extended Performance oil with a 626 Mobil 1 filter. Also got some Water Wetter to maybe help with the overheating problem. Front brakes and rear sway bar will be the next big project. I'll probably start up the airbox project again soon, too.
No clue. I was thinking about replacing the thermostat, too. It hasn't done it again yet, but the temperature hasn't been as hot as this past weekend either.
The '98 was overheating in summer as well, but I never bothered to look into it. Usually just driving with the fresh air vent open and the HVAC set to hot worked well enough.
Just filled up and put the numbers in my fuel economy app. Finally back up to 28mpg from 22-23. Not sure if it's due to the 93 octane, the fresh oil, or the multiple long drives at 55+ mph. Filled up with 87 this time so we'll see when I drain this tank.
My project for the day: New front brakes and replace rear sway bar.
I decided to start with the sway bar since the brakes were hot from driving to the parts store and back. Old bar came out fairly easily. Endlink bolts were pretty rusted, but nothing some heat couldn't take care of.
Out with the old:
In with the new:
Yes, the bar is upside down in that pic, I made sure to flip it when I installed it. The aluminum mount stand-offs went on somewhat easy. Previous owner had two different sets of nuts/bolts that needed to be reused. The driver side hardware had heads slightly too big to fit in the stand-off. Grind down the sides of the head a little bit and went on nicely. Then the bolts supplied with by AWR to mount the bar to the stand-offs were too long, they went through the stand-off and hit the stock mount bracket. Couldn't find any around the garage that would work so I had to cut the bolts almost in half to fit right. Got the bar on and set the endlinks 32mm from the end of the bar (farther to the end is softer).
Could be set a little stiffer, but that can wait til next time I'm under the car (hopefully this coming weekend to replace an O2 sensor). Just noticed after uploading the photos that the bar sits to the right, so I'll also have to slide it to the left a bit to get it straight.
Did the front brakes after the bar. Came apart and went back together so easily I thought I forgot a step or two. Put on new rotors (generic, blank) and got a set of ceramic pads. After breaking them in per instructions on the box (20/30/30 rule), I went for a drive. They work well and are a hell of a lot quieter and smoother. Normally when creeping up real slow, like at a red light, you can hear and feel the pads grabbing and letting go. There is absolutely no sensation like that with these pads. So smooth and no noise at all.
That concludes today's updates. Thank you for viewing and have a great day
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