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Yup I forgot about the heat shield! Its only with the AWD's, Its best to jack up the car and remove them off of the mid pipe. If you dont remove them, the mid pipe will rot and you will have holes in the exhaust tube. Very easy to cut off the tin shield, 10mm nut usually they are rusted, just cut them with angle grinder or even twist them off with plyers like what i did, next remove the fiberglass wrap thats on it as that traps moisture. Especially in winter time those shields collect water.
Be careful with the fiberglass. The guy working on it started picking on it and it made a cloud. He had to wet it down it was so bad.
Thanks guys, I didn't notice any signs of rust when it was in the air yesterday, but I'll work on getting the heat shield out.
Picked it up today, and so far I'm loving it. Still haven't gotten through all the options it has, but it is equipped with headlight washers, AFS, power rear sunscreen, parking sensors, and I'm sure lots more. Biggest issue I have is not being able to license it until tomorrow morning, just due to timing of picking it up. A couple more quick pictures. The engine cover plastic is broken in the corner by the oil fill, not really a big deal, but just doesn't look as good as I'd like.
Quick question, is there a way to tell if this is equipped with HID bulbs? One headlight went out tonight, it was working earlier, now it is down so I don't want to pull all the plastics to look for the ballast if there is another way to tell. Or maybe they all have HID with AFS, and I'm just being dumb.
Edit: Nevermind, looks like the D4S is the only bulb for the low beams. Guess I'm going to have to get a pair, any recommendations on low cost replacement bulbs? I see some on Amazon for around $30, and money is really tight now that I bought this today.
Edit 2: Nope appears to be a ballast issue, went back down(I'm at work) and the light came on normal and seemed fine, few minutes later it was off again. That unfortunately will likely have to wait until next week by the time I get the part and can tear down the front end to replace the ballast.
This is sometime a sign that the bulb is bad also - on for 5 minutes before turning off. Quick check would be to swap the bulb from the other headlight.
I'm going to attempt that today, it was a bit nerve wracking last night driving home from work in a snow storm, no license plates (I was late for work picking up the car so couldn't hit the DMV), and wrecks all over the place, and one headlight wasn't on, but at least the fogs worked. Honestly though, the car was flawless outside of the low beam on the DS not working, high beam on that side works fine. Also had a Check VSC message and SES and TC lights come on last night. I'm waiting on my son to wake up so I can grab my reader and see what's up. I had zero issues on the freeway for several miles during the test drive, so this caught me by surprise, doesn't seem to have any practical effect so I'm hoping it's something simple.
Code was P0430 Catalyst efficiency bank 2, may be temporary because of the gas cleaning out. I will run some fuel system cleaner with my next tank of fuel, for now the code seems to be staying out.
Got thinking about the code and searching around the site and see a lot mentioning the gas cap. Now, this car passed emissions very clean earlier Tuesday, so I find it hard to believe it has an actual issue that night just a few hours later. Emissions test was done with OBD connected, so car was at temp and should have thrown the code if there was a real problem. I'm going to try replacing the gas cap this weekend and swapping the headlights over. Weather here has not cooperated this week, but looks to be decent this weekend, so hopefully get a few things fixed.
Sometimes a cat code is from a leaky mid pipe, is there a whistle under the vehicle when you rev it hard?
Also with 3GS I wouldnt worry about engine codes from a car thats been sitting. These cars like to be driven, so give it time to fully clear out.
Have you tried telling the car lot where you purchased the vehicle that there are codes and to see what they can do for free?
I bought it strictly as is, the dealer had not had a chance to inspect the vehicle at all, they had safety and emissions done and that's it. However, this car is quiet and no whistling sound from the exhaust, or really any signs of issues with the exhaust. It's really so quiet that I'm thinking if the gas cap doesn't solve it, I'll swap in new primary cats and have a new exhaust built by a local shop. I'd love to have a bit of a growl at idle and a little roar when I get on it.
I tried an experiment today, the car has been throwing the code like clockwork at almost the exact same distance from where I start, around 5 miles. So I grabbed a cheap cap from a local parts store and threw it on while I wait for the OE I ordered. The difference was that it didn't throw the code for much longer (around 12-15 miles), then it threw it again when I was pulling into my office parking lot. The old cap would throw it at 5 miles and wouldn't throw it again in the other 70 miles. It did make a difference, so I think the OE cap will probably solve the issue.
Like I said sometimes little quirks fix themselves when you drive them after they have been sitting not driven for awhile. Maybe run a whole can of seafoam through the intake manifold via the top blanked off nipple. With the engine hot after driving, pop off the engine cover, grab a small section of vacuum hose that fits in place of that blocked off plug. Pour the (traditional seafoam) into a small cup and let the engines vacuum suck the seafoam out of the cup. Run half the bottle and turn off the car and let it sit for 30 min and repeat. Then when you finished drive it hard on the highway.
While at it you can remove the throttle body (just 4 bolts, and a plug) and clean thoroughly you will need to push the butterfly open with your hands to clean inside aswell.
New oem air filter and oem denso spark plugs, will ensure it runs very smooth!
Ok, well so far it's doing better, but I still get the warning lights once in a while on the longer trips. New OE gas cap will be here Wed with my new headlight bulbs. I did swap the bulbs and found that the bulb is bad, when it's cold it turns on no issues, then once it warms a few minutes it goes out. I ordered a set of 6k HID's from Amazon to replace them both and I will keep the working one as a spare for now.
New question, I noticed my wipers are always in "up" position and do not return to rest position on their own, is this normal behavior? I've never seen one that doesn't self park, but maybe this is normal since the owner's manual shows moving them by hand for wiper replacement.
New question, I noticed my wipers are always in "up" position and do not return to rest position on their own, is this normal behavior? I've never seen one that doesn't self park, but maybe this is normal since the owner's manual shows moving them by hand for wiper replacement.
You didn’t finish reading that section of the owners manual. Once you move them to that position for changing them, they are in ‘winter mode’ where they stay like that for easy snow removal. To get them back to normal mode you push them back down by hand the same way and it pops back into normal mode.
Thanks, I read through the owner's manual and saw it, but there really isn't a reason given other than wiper replacement and it is just referred to as "rest position". No biggie, I'll take a look at dropping them down after I replace the wipers this week.
01-15-19, 09:16 AM
