Thread: Cars spotted, garage pics, driveway pics, misc pics of random car work.

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If you'll recall recently Katie's VW Beetle got 4 new tires.

Walking up to the car one day I saw this.


A nail-gun nail still wrapped in paper with it's head ground off.


It was completely through the tread but didn't actually puncture the tire. I got some pliers and pulled it out and we've just hoped for the best. It's been a while since then and no trouble. Hopefully we won't have any issues for the life of the tire. We'll see.

Good you noticed, I can imagine this is also quite dangerous because tyre could blow this way.

The parking area I used to have to park in at my old apartment would kill a tire every couple of months with a nail or screw or something. It was ridiculous. I think it has made me paranoid about foreign objects in tires and maybe I instinctively look them over now.

this thread, though quite random, is even still interesting

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A few months ago (okay it was back in Oct. '09 which goes to show how behind I am with organizing and hosting/posting pictures) I broke the lens mechanism on my camera. Somehow it must have turned on in my pocket and then I must have crushed in the retractable lens.

After thinking about all the options I bought another of the same model (Canon SD600) on eBay. The camera was maybe $215 new and they were selling for about $130 in good condition on eBay (shows how popular they are still when the SD1000 sold for $115 new) so I looked for one that was broken but still had a working lens mechanism. I found one for $28 shipped that had a cracked LCD screen that didn't show anything, but everything else worked.

After taking the old camera apart I decided it would be easiest to just swap my old LCD screen to the new camera.

Since I had my original camera in about 50 pieces and the new camera wasn't exactly operational I didn't get any good pics of the work. (Although now that I think about it I guess I could have.) =(

I only have what I took of the old parts once the new Frankenstein camera was back together.

Here's my old camera in a few pieces and the broken LCD screen from the new camera next to it. If you look close you can see liquid crystal leaking in the screen.







There was way more to it than the pics show but it's hard to take pictures in that situation. If you've ever refurbished a digital camera you'll know what I mean. My background in refurbishing is useful once again. Those little electrical connection ribbons can be quite a bitch if you're not used to them and don't have tiny needle-nose pliers or other tiny tools for the job.

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A while ago the Beetle was exhibiting odd behavior with the coolant light. It turned out to be a faulty coolant temp sensor, but while trying to fix that the water pump took a dump as well and made diagnosing both problems quite hard. I thought maybe the thermostat was stuck so we got a new one of those. While replacing that you can feel the water pump impeller blades with the access you have available and determine if they are still attached to the shaft or if the plastic blades have broken. Ours had broken, so we took a trip to Advance Auto hoping to find a non-OEM version with metal blades. No such luck. Stupid plastic impeller blades!

Who knew VWs put the water pump on the timing belt?! Not me. Wasn't exactly prepared for that. At the end of the day it worked out.

Pics.



The jack stands are not at home right now. Don't follow my example. I made sure to limit the amount of time I was under the car with that thing holding it up. Not cool I know.


Katie took the pictures while I worked on her car, so there's no telling what she's thinking when she takes these pics.


Sexy "shop" clothes make for sexy pictures.




I know these pics are basically fail without showing the broken impeller. It had snapped pretty cleanly in half and separated from the knurled shaft so the pump was free spinning and not moving any water.

This is apparently a very common problem.
Google images to the rescue. Damn there's tons of them on there.
This is almost exactly what it looked like.


And this is a similar placement on the timing belt from another VW engine.
What the hell? Makes swapping these pumps not as easy as it should be. And apparently they break all the time.


30k miles on the one we replaced.

Looks like your brother washes his wheels once per set of brake pads...Damn,those are ruined.

Clean them up and paint them and I am sure they would be as good as new.

He's never washed a thing on that car. It is pure transportation to him. Sad but true. He's not interested in it at all. We got it for him because I'd know how to fix it, and I'd have plenty of spare parts. He will be selling it at some point when he can afford a Yaris hatch. (Who knows when that will be?). He'll likely be in Austin, Texas when that happens.
Anyone in TX want a bone stock, solid running classic?

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Went to my favorite dyno with a bunch of kids from the local college car enthusiast club. Most were there to just get an idea of what power they were making.
The ignition pickup didn't work for the guy with the Miata so he got a torque curve only with speed on the x-axis instead of RPM.
The kid with the Camaro had some minor ECU tuning done so he went last.






The Sentra didn't make it out that day. I had the Beetle. No the Beetle didn't go on the rollers. =P


The Miata was owned by an older gentleman who races in SCCA I believe.






He didn't get any real numbers, just his torque curve because of trouble with the ignition pick-up but he was more concerned with getting the fuel sorted out with the shop's wideband anyway. He said previously he was making around 175 WHP.


This is the turbo Eclipse. It's not a 4G63 engine as you'd expect, it's the N/A 420A engine with a turbo slapped on (haphazardly at best if you ask me). It's a real ghetto job but it runs MegaSquirt and the kid likes it and he's learning at lot with it.




First on the rollers was the Miata. Owner is by the driver's side door.






















Like I said the Miata owner was happy with his time on the dyno even if he didn't get any power info. He was happy to get his fuel sorted out.


The Eclipse was up next.


I think he normally tools around town with upwards of 21 psi but decided he was gunna see what 24 psi was like on the dyno.


We all sat around guessing what power he was going to make. No one had any real idea.


I had him pegged at 340 WHP and while that sounds stupid low for 24 psi (it is) you have to understand the horrible manifold he's dealing with, and the likely crappy tuning, and the "OMG no one seems to be able to do anything right these days" factor when it comes to modding cars. No one else was going to make a confident guess at his power output so I was the only one guessing.














During the first pull for the Mitsubishi the shop owner wasn't really expecting the torque steer (he works almost exclusively with RWD domestics) and didn't have his hands on the steering wheel during the pull. Boost came on and the car started moving left quickly on the rollers towards us! But like a pro (or a crazy madman) he kept his foot into it and just grabbed the steering wheel and all was well.


Some MegaSquirt action.


I was staying way back after the near accident.


The Eclipse pulled off 338 WHP at 24 psi. I guessed pretty much on the money which seemed to impress some people and myself. Not great for what it should be, but it's still a lot of power.


There was a Prelude (stock) there for kicks.


If you haven't figured it out by now, impressive cars this club does not possess.




Did I mention it is stock? I don't even think it's a manual. I think it's an automatic. And it leaks oil?




Okay so the Prelude put down 97 WHP I think?
Setting records for lowest output at the dyno shop here!


Everything was getting strapped down today.










There's the owner with his hands in the engine bay. He just put his car on for kicks as well. No tuning and no aspirations of power. Don't ask me what type of engine is in there. I have no idea. It's stock though.








I think he put down 175 ft-lbs of torque and 85 WHP. Woohoo new record! =D

*continued in next post*