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I finally took delivery of my '01 this morning. Went and got the tag and title transferred over and got it registered, slapped on my licence plate from the 370Z, then went and filled the tank up. I put it on my insurance last week.
Now I just need to get this darn 370Z sold. Any takers?
After tending to the lawn this morning, I pulled the LS out of the garage and gave it it's first proper wash with my foam cannon and some Chemical Guys cherry scented "Maxi Suds II". After drying it, I wiped down all of the door jams as well as the trunk lid, hood and engine compartment. Also did some minor detailing on the inside and used some Chemical Guys Mangocello air freshener.
Even though there are some little chips in the paint here and there, it still has an amazing shine and that pearl looks great! No dents anywhere either except one tiny one up on the roof near the sunroof. Strange. Other than that, this LS looks great inside and out, and it no longer smells like a little old lady car on the inside. LOL
Oh, and as I was tidying up the interior, I grabbed a bunch of CD's and loaded them all into the changer. It works just perfectly not to mention that it sounds a whole heck of a lot better than the tuner. However, even the tuner sounds darn good. This is definitely one of the better stock systems that I've heard that sounds really good. Makes me wonder just how much better the Mark Levinson system sounded in this car. Even the sub sounds good. This system will definitely hold me over for a while until I decide on what to do for upgrades.
My 8 yr old is always interested to help out when I am working in the garage, but most of the stuff I do, it is not something that he can do. This time, I let him help me clean the back seat area which is his domain. I pulled all of the carpets and clean them outside the car, while he vacuum the seats and floors.
A good lesson in responsibility for him. We let him eat in the back there, and while he is very good at not making a mess back there, he still get some crumbs.
It is so nice when the car is reliable, does not need anything but just gas, a wash and interior clean-up every so often. I am spoiled lol
Thanks, I'm just a DIYer slowly getting better body and paint work. I finally looked at why the front right suspension feels sloppy ever since the car was hit at the left rear while parked a few months. The shop replaced all the suspension arms at that corner, but they said the insurance probably wouldn't cover any other parts since the alignment was good now. I think the rust is from the oil leaking out of the bushing? I used a prybar and pushed and pulled on the tire and there was alot of play. Bought new OEM bushings for both sides and will press them in at a friend's shop.
Got the bushings last week, but I couldn't get them pressed in myself. I went to 4 shops who said they couldn't do it either, even the truck shop which referred to the machine shop down the road. The guy there was really nice, asked what car was it for and when I told him he said those are excellent cars. He said those bushings should have been ok with the low mileage on the car. I explained it was hit recently and things got messed up. I picked them today and he said it was very difficult to do and old bushings crumbled into pieces after pushing them out. He also painted the bracket, looks like a complete new part.
Got the bushings installed, made a huge difference. Feels almost like new. I also loosened all of the control arm bolts at each wheel jacked up the suspension at each corner a few times and re-tightened the bolts with the weight of the car on the suspension. That made a difference as well, ride is much softer and smoother now that nothing is binded up. The front passenger suspension still feels loose so I will check it again for another loose bushing, ball joint or tie rod end before getting an alignment.
I need to do this as well. I'll probably do it when it gets a little cooler around here. I need to find some DIY thread about taking the grill out but I think I saw someone post some basics about it and it didn't look at be that hard.
When I looked up that rocker guard you mention, it says it's textured. What's your thoughts on how that rocker guard came out? I don't want any "texture" though so I might just used good ole Krylon semi-gloss black.
I like how it turned out. I'll take a close up picture and add it here.
It's been several weeks as I've been on the road. I crawled under to see if anything were leaking, knock on wood, no! (I don't want to just wait for spots on the driveway--cars getting older, they can develop leaks)
Cleaned VSV and had every intention of replacing the actuator on the RF door. Since I bought the car, the smart access never worked on that handle, though it would lock and unlock with the fob or switches. As I am pulling the vapor barrier off, I see the harness to the door handle just hanging there. Plug it in, push the lock button on the outside handle and it beeps. I guess someone was in the door at some point and forgot to plug it back in. So I have a set of actuators and printed instructions for the day they stop working.
She's getting a well-deserved rest! Her mpgs have plummeted after the spark plug change. Between my wife driving her, and my commute now being all city driving aka stop/go, 4 tanks in a row are in the 15's.
Again I am pretty sure plugs have nothing to do with it, more so the 14-16 mph avg speed. Used to be around 24-26 mph.
Plus the BMW is much more fun to drive even though I backed her into the steel cables in the garage due to no backup cam lol scratchy scratchy
Replaced my left front speed sensor harness, had C0205 and C1223 codes and traced it to the wire harness. Replacement was extremely easy to do, took me 20 mins from taking the wheel off to putting it back on after the change. The old harness' ground wire was rotted, just crumbled to dust when I pulled apart the connector end. Used a SMP ALH46 harness for the replacement, the quality looks and feels exactly like OEM. And the best part, I no longer have the C0205 and C1223 codes and my ABS and VSC is working again!
KInda frustrating where I just have to keep laughing at the losing streak. Suddenly, today (remember just 2 days ago I fixed her ABS stabilitrak issue), my wife's car is leaking coolant. Now she's gonna have to drive the LS430 and the mpgs will stay in the 14's!
I guess I'll attempt to replace her water pump when my son has his first day of kindergarten and I am home from work. The only part I did not like in the YouTube is where the tech says to use a pry bar and gently pry the engine over to get enough clearance to get the pump past the frame rail. That's just dumb design grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
08-14-19, 12:22 PM
