Cars

[3278]

I would rather spend the weekend without my legs. I would rather spend the weekend without my penis.

Well, I didn't have to spend the weekend without my penis. I got the fan clutch off with no problems in Saturday, and then spent Sunday flushing and cleaning the system - a large portion of which was the three hours I had to spend just driving it "under normal use" to circulate the heavy-duty cleaner. Boy, that was arduous, after two weeks of not getting to drive my car.

Looks sharp, but only to me. I'll post pics when I can.

[Johnny the Bull]

I don't have my car yet, but it will be soon. Will post pics as soon as I get it.

[3278]

I don't have my car yet, but it will be soon. Will post pics as soon as I get it.

What did you finally settle on?

[Kwyndig]

Oy... My car, she has betrayed me.

I'm experiencing an active coolant leak, in that when the car is running, it sprays anti-freeze/water out from directly behind my engine block. As my car was designed to be serviced by small japanese men and tiny robots (geo prizms are badge engineered toyotas) and I lack an engine hoist, I am currently canvasing local repair shops to get this fixed as quickly as possible, but having no real luck today.

[Salvation122]

Either my thermostat or water pump is busted. Praying it's the thermostat.

[3278]

I'm starting to think my water pump might be going, because it's making that marbles sound when I'm idling, but that could just be rough idle, too. I certainly hope the water pump's not bad, but it's at least doable.

What's your car doing, Sal? Just not circulating?

[Daki]

Related note that springs from the conversation here (and a related thread on Animalball).

Where do you think price meets longevity in cars? We recently bought a new Honda Civic for Jae (to replace the beast that was her Neon after it croaked in the parking lot). I consider us very lucky for finding one with under 10K miles for 12K. The car has a very good track record for longevity and reliability.

But where does that perfect point veer? I never subscribed to the idea that you buy the car cheap with cash and avoid financing all together because I've had too many cars where I did just that and ended up spending 3X or 4X the purchase price just in repairs and parts.

[3278]

Where do you think price meets longevity in cars?

An excellent question. A friend of mine used to buy a new US$500 car, like, once every few months. He'd drive it until something more expensive than US$500 would happen to it, then buy another. He spent vastly less per year than anyone I've ever known who financed and bought a "decent" car. And as a plus, all his cars were cool, and interesting, and unique. And almost never caught fire or exploded.

I think that extreme isn't for everyone, but the fact is, I've bought all of my cars at well over 100,000 miles, and almost always put another 100,000 - 150,000 miles on them, although doing so did sometimes mean spending the purchase price of the car in repairs. But thus far, my BMW has cost me, I think, less than US$3,000, total, for two years of ownership, and that's including fixing the damage from hitting a deer.

I consider us very lucky for finding one with under 10K miles for 12K. The car has a very good track record for longevity and reliability.

Wow. What a rip-off. I'm not saying you didn't get a good deal on that specific car, but holy crap could you buy, like, ten of my cars for that price. Seriously, even if you bought nice ones, you could buy four older cars for that price, and they'd all be way better than a Civic! [And I like Civics.]

But. [There's always a "but."] Jae will get to drive her car, period. It won't be in the shop all the time. She won't be under it, replacing god-knows-what every few weeks. She won't end up walking 20 miles home. That kind of peace-of-mind is worth a lot...although, to me, it's not worth US$12,000. I'm poor, though.

I never subscribed to the idea that you buy the car cheap with cash and avoid financing all together because I've had too many cars where I did just that and ended up spending 3X or 4X the purchase price just in repairs and parts.

1. Choose the car better. [Chance as much as art, but it bears saying.]
2. Don't ever pay anyone else to fix your car. Unless you need a new engine. And then only if your car is front-wheel-drive.
3. Don't buy a front-wheel-drive car.
4. Don't buy an automatic.
5. Don't buy a car made after 1990.
6. Don't buy a car made in America.
7. If you want to fix it yourself, don't buy a Honda.
8. If you don't want to need to fix it, period, do buy a Honda.

[sinsual]

Related note that springs from the conversation here (and a related thread on Animalball).

Where do you think price meets longevity in cars? We recently bought a new Honda Civic for Jae (to replace the beast that was her Neon after it croaked in the parking lot). I consider us very lucky for finding one with under 10K miles for 12K. The car has a very good track record for longevity and reliability.

But where does that perfect point veer? I never subscribed to the idea that you buy the car cheap with cash and avoid financing all together because I've had too many cars where I did just that and ended up spending 3X or 4X the purchase price just in repairs and parts.

Its in your warranty. Purchasing a new car isn't just about the car itself when the price is figured. The warranty also plays a part. When you look at the note, you have to ask yourself "will it be paid off at or before the warranty runs out?" If it goes over, then you look at the maintanence schedule and see what repairs are required by you the owner at or about the end of your note. Is a new timing belt due? Is a new clutch due? These are things you should be looking at when trying to figure that out. At the end of your note, are you going to be able to turn around and sell the car for more then 50% of what you paid for it? Not everyone is as mechanically inclined or have the place to work on their cars like some of us. So you have to figure what repairs at a shop are going to cost when you look at the cheap car that has no warranty.

[Salvation122]

I'm starting to think my water pump might be going, because it's making that marbles sound when I'm idling, but that could just be rough idle, too. I certainly hope the water pump's not bad, but it's at least doable.

What's your car doing, Sal? Just not circulating?

Temperature's acting all erratic. Haven't had a chance to really check it yet, but I had the water pump replaced not too long ago - figure 15k or so - so I really do think it's just the thermostat which is nice and cheap.

[3278]

Temperature's acting all erratic. Haven't had a chance to really check it yet, but I had the water pump replaced not too long ago - figure 15k or so - so I really do think it's just the thermostat which is nice and cheap.

Yeah, that sounds about right. Unless it's the gauge or wiring, of course, but the thermostat is an easier initial fix.

[Johnny the Bull]

I don't have my car yet, but it will be soon. Will post pics as soon as I get it.

What did you finally settle on?

I was going to go the BMW 330, but I'll probably go with the Lexus IS300 as I can actually insure it (under 25 and you get shafted). I am going to test drive the new Corvette with my boss, but I'm not that keen to be honest despite the ungodly amount of power.

[IrnMaidan]

I wish I had my own car. I'm forced to drive other peoples after my car died and it sucks. I used to get close to 30 miles to the gallon too.

[3278]

I pull into Belle Tire this morning to have my tires filled with nitrogen. "50psi," I say.

The tech looks at my car - one corner of the front end curled in an impact sneer, air conditioner removed, cooling fan removed, cross-drilled brakes, racing wheels, high-pressure racing tires - and says, "You race this?"

"Actually, I've never had it on a track," I tell him, face immobile.

He nods, bends down to start removing the valve core, stops. Looks up at me. "That ain't what I asked."

"No," I say. "It ain't."

[3278]

First impressions of the nitrogen fill: I took the car out this afternoon for some spirited driving on local back roads, and my initial impressions are positive. The tires seemed to vary less in their responsiveness as they heated, although this of course might be entirely psychosomatic. Normally, the tires flex more when cool, and get tighter as the air within expands, but the nitrogen seems to retain its volume better over a greater range of heat. In other words, my 50psi is now 50psi all the time, and should stay that way.

The promised 5 percent increase in fuel mileage is within the margin of error for my [positively ancient] in-dash computer, so I'll probably never know if I get it, but I likely won't, since that 5 percent is supposed to come from variation as your tires get flat, and I check mine religiously. Still, worth the nothing I paid for the nitrogen.

[Bishop]

So you check your tires now more then when you did with the Sunbird you put the badass michelins on? As in you checked it when you tried to perform a sharp turn or maneuver and couldn't due to way under inflated tires?

[3278]

Like the time I had two flat rear tires, driving on a four-lane road in snow, and lost it? Yeah, more often than that. Probably the scariest near-avoidance of a crash I've ever had.

[sinsual]

I pull into Belle Tire this morning to have my tires filled with nitrogen. "50psi," I say.

What tires are you running that "50psi" is a viable pressure?

[3278]

Just Avon Tech M500s. They're great tires - and in my opinion, reasonably priced - but they have a lot of tread block squirm when they're new. Next set - end of the summer, if I don't overdrive - will be g-Force T/A KDW-2s. I like their performance, although they're noisier than my Avons, and I particularly like their tread pattern.

I highly recommend the Avons, for their dry and wet performance [although they do hydroplane in extreme downpours] and their ridiculous grip. They're quiet [for performance tires], and reasonably priced. On the other hand, the tread block squirm is bad when they're new [unless you shave them] and they don't offer progressive breakaway or any sort of "you're close to the limit" sound cues. I've also gone through something like six tires in two seasons - about four to six months per season - and while I drive a lot of miles, and drive hard, that's still a lot of wear. Probably more my fault than theirs.

[sinsual]

I've also gone through something like six tires in two seasons - about four to six months per season - and while I drive a lot of miles, and drive hard, that's still a lot of wear. Probably more my fault than theirs.

Are they wearing through the centers or the sides? That air pressure is towards the high end of the wear spectrum, for when your running at the max weight load of the tires, or when you have Paul, Bishop and enough game books for a session of AD&D, SR, Earthdawn and GURPS plus food

Try optimizing your pressures. Take some shoewhite and make a stripe in 3 to 4 evenly spaced lines from sidewall to sidewall across the tread on all 4 tires. Run a good curvy stretch of road then check to see what the scrub marks are in the shoewhite. If you leave alot of the outside treadblocks, drop 2lbs, restripe and run it again. If your leaving alot of the middle, but none on the sides, add 2lbs. If your running the stock tire size, look at where Beemer suggests, then split the difference and run the testing. It could stretch the poor mileage rating of them UHP Tires a little further

[3278]

That's a really good idea. I'll have to try that.

Right now, the wear is even, except for the insides of the rear tires which wear slightly more quickly, but that's because of two factors: powerslides, and the fact that the alignment is still set up for the track [because I've never had it re-aligned]. But optimizing the pressure seems like a good idea, anyway, just to get the most out of the tires. Thanks!

[sinsual]

No problem, that is an old autoXer trick to optimize the contact patch and to make sure your getting the most grip from your tires.

I am looking at the Nitto N01 in 205/55R14 for the Sprite. They make great canyon carver tires even if they do wear quickly from their very soft compound, but the Sprite is a weekend player. If it becomes a daily driver, I will run some Kuhmo's All Season tires for longevity. If it's a daily driver, there is no need for really sticky tires. The car is light enough, changing out the wheels for the weekend is a half hour job.

[Salvation122]

Temperature's acting all erratic. Haven't had a chance to really check it yet, but I had the water pump replaced not too long ago - figure 15k or so - so I really do think it's just the thermostat which is nice and cheap.

Yeah, that sounds about right. Unless it's the gauge or wiring, of course, but the thermostat is an easier initial fix.

Turns out my radiator's cracked and leaking fluid. (How in the hell do plastic radiators make sense to anyone, ever? Plastic is a crappy heat conductor, and it's not like aluminum is all that expensive.) Based partly on reading this thread, partly on the ease of the replacement (Drain the radiator fluid, remove two bolts, pull radiator out, put new radiator in, replace bolts, add fluid - maybe two hours' work because I've never done this sort of thing before), and mostly on my desire to save $600, I'll be replacing it myself tomorrow.

[3278]

You...have a...plastic radiator? Come again? What the hell do you drive? Is this common?

If you're going to do the fill yourself - the rest of it is easy and common-sense - make sure to find instructions on bleeding, or else you'll end up with air in the system, which will create hotspots in the engine, which will cause you to do things like blow head gaskets. It may be as simple as "fill," but it probably won't be. Remember also that until the car gets hot enough to open the thermostat, you're not filling the radiator, just the engine and overflow tank. Generally, you have to run it and stand there until the thermostat opens, and then be ready to pour a bunch more in.

My advice, for what it's worth, particularly if the car isn't new, is to just put it back together, fill it with plain water [for this purpose, tap is fine] and drive straightaway to a shop where they do flush+fill. [Remembering to cycle it until the radiator is full, natch.] They'll bleed it properly, and clean the coolant channels in the block.

If you fill it yourself, remember to use distilled water. And if you're replacing it yourself anyway, you may as well do more than drain it: flush and fill it. I used a really nice cleaner, which also gave me an excuse to drive the car for six hours so it could do its thing. But your car probably isn't as old as mine.

[sinsual]

(How in the hell do plastic radiators make sense to anyone, ever? Plastic is a crappy heat conductor, and it's not like aluminum is all that expensive.)

The holding tanks are not conductors at all, in either aluminum or plastic radiators. The core, which does all of the heat transfer is still aluminum. They also expand, flex, and contract over a much broader range then the aluminum tanks, which means they can handle a few overheats better then the aluminum holding tanks. The downside to the plastic, is that once it has turned brittle, its easy to crack. The newer plastic tanks can be plastic welded with great success. The older ones are tricky because there wasn't a "standard" plastic used. So some can be welded, and most can't. I think by 2000 something like 90% of the vehicles on the road use "plastic" radiators. That includes trucks, SUV's and many of the performance cars.

[Salvation122]

You...have a...plastic radiator? Come again? What the hell do you drive? Is this common?

4-cylinder 2-liter '95 Eclipse GS, manual transmition. About 163k miles on it, now, about 30k of them mine.

If you're going to do the fill yourself - the rest of it is easy and common-sense - make sure to find instructions on bleeding, or else you'll end up with air in the system, which will create hotspots in the engine, which will cause you to do things like blow head gaskets. It may be as simple as "fill," but it probably won't be. Remember also that until the car gets hot enough to open the thermostat, you're not filling the radiator, just the engine and overflow tank. Generally, you have to run it and stand there until the thermostat opens, and then be ready to pour a bunch more in.

Thanks for that. Would that be in the $10 service manual I bought at Autozone? I mean, I guess I could just go out to the car on my next break and check, but I'm lazy.

I used a really nice cleaner, which also gave me an excuse to drive the car for six hours so it could do its thing. But your car probably isn't as old as mine.

Yeah, gas is expensive, and there aren't a whole hell of a lot of fun places to drive around here. I'll probably just take it over to Firestone and have 'em do a flush.

[3278]

You...have a...plastic radiator? Come again? What the hell do you drive? Is this common?

4-cylinder 2-liter '95 Eclipse GS, manual transmition. About 163k miles on it, now, about 30k of them mine.

Wow. Is, like, the whole radiator plastic, or just the endcaps? For instance, my radiator core is aluminum, but on each end slide plastic retainers that end up holding it to the car.

Thanks for that. Would that be in the $10 service manual I bought at Autozone? I mean, I guess I could just go out to the car on my next break and check, but I'm lazy.

Yeah, probably. You probably got the Haynes manual, which will definitely have radiator flush+fill instructions. Basically, read them, and if it doesn't sound like crap, follow the directions. It's all pretty commonsense, if you understand how the system works, or basic physics, so you should be totally set. On the other hand, if you do it wrong, your engine could die, so it's not something you want to fuck up.

Yeah, gas is expensive, and there aren't a whole hell of a lot of fun places to drive around here. I'll probably just take it over to Firestone and have 'em do a flush.

I advise it. I spent basically an entire afternoon flushing, filling, driving, flushing, filling, flushing, filling, and finally being done. I'm glad I did it myself, but I'm cheap.

[Salvation122]

You...have a...plastic radiator? Come again? What the hell do you drive? Is this common?

4-cylinder 2-liter '95 Eclipse GS, manual transmition. About 163k miles on it, now, about 30k of them mine.

Wow. Is, like, the whole radiator plastic, or just the endcaps? For instance, my radiator core is aluminum, but on each end slide plastic retainers that end up holding it to the car.

Well, the guy at Firestone had said "It's a plastic radiator, so we can't fix it," but after pulling it out, it seems that what he meant is "The part that connects to the hoses is plastic, and cracked, and it's all one piece with the metal radiator, so we can't fix it." An hour and a half later and it's done; jacking the damn car up took longer than actually swapping the stuff out.

As far as refilling the radiator, it seems like it really was just "fill;" we let the thing sit idle with the AC blasting for, oh, three or four cigarettes - figure fifteen, twenty minutes - and the thing never went above nominal. Between all-new antifreeze and better circulation from removing all the fucking leaves from between the air filter and the radiator (and no, I don't know how they got there) it'll probably actually run a smidge cooler than I'm used to. I'll probably drive it around for about an hour today, see if there are any problems, but it seems like we're good to go.

[3278]

Yeah, you just have to keep watch on temp and coolant levels, and keep topping off as air bubbles out. I'm still putting coolant in mine, as little bits filter out here and there.

Good work!

[DV8]

Entertaining: Dodge Viper SRT10 vs BWM Z4 M Roadster

[3278]

Say what you will about what I do to cars - and I can say a lot - they manage, somehow, to hold together. Extreme weather has been hard on my car: a quarter-mile strip of road which ditched another half-dozen people while I was there resulted in the death of my hated air dam, which was fine until I realized it actually did serve a purpose. I did take a look underneath, and I think Fay and I can weld on a replacement from steel sheet and aluminum pipe, which will have the added benefit of serving as a subtle cow-catcher.

Months ago, an odd rattle started to come from my transmission. I worried, but did little else. Then a new rattle started - more of a scream - which would only go away in fourth. Then it would only go away if I held the stick to the lower-left in fourth. Then I lost the ability to select first and second entirely; doing so resulted instead in neutral. Sometimes, I'll lose all gears except first and second, which I can usually fix by selecting neutral in a very particular manner several times.

This hadn't been too difficult, and I'd dealt with this state of affairs for perhaps a month now - the first rattle started months ago, since before the charging system set fire to my battery necessitating the carrying to two batteries in my trunk [where the battery normally sits, I rush to note] for perhaps six months until those caught fire, and I replaced the battery and alternator - but last night it really came to a head when I tried to do a three-point turn in my street and ended up unable to select reverse...while nose-first at the curb. I could only select first and second, and selecting anything else resulted in an immediate stall when the clutch was engaged, except neutral, which apparently selected first. [We had a little runaway moment, but thankfully the cars were tethered when I got out.] Fortunately, I get very little traffic, so I was able to sit about until Paul could come and drag the rear end across the ice until I could pull forward. This morning, it only took about a half-mile of driving in first before I was able to trick it back into selecting fourth, by first trying to select reverse while the car was in motion.

The guy at work is trying to convince me to buy a brand new Kia or a slightly used Nissan; he doesn't seem to understand that if I could afford payments on a new car, I'd just fix the one I have. As it is, I'm going to nurse her through until spring comes, and then I'm going to pull the entire transmission, replace all the bushings with brass ones, and look inside the transmission to see what the fuck is wrong with it. I'll probably need to rent a car for a couple of weeks.

[Bishop]

My pole barn is open for ya. Lots of room, and I got lots of tools.

[zemookie]

My husband evildingdong just picked up a miata. I really like this car a great deal.



It is of course manual. He would never drive automatic. I kind of learned manual with his old car (Civic Hatch 2003) but I have to say it really clicked when I drove the miata. I know for a fact I will be taking this car to work a few times once the weather gets really nice out. Which he is encouraging.

The next phase is auto crossing. I am taking the "Learning Curve" class along with him. Then I am the co-driver on the miata and we will be racing this summer.
Which I am pretty damn excited about.
I did auto-cross my 2003 RSX Acura once last year. It was fun but I was kind of lost on what I should be doing. So this year I take the 101 class to feel more confident.

My gosh. I think I am turning into a car geek.

[DV8]

Is that the six-gear limited edition, Mooks?

[zemookie]

Hi Dennis,

It's an LS. So it's a 5-speed + LSD. I had originally looked for a SE or 10AE, but read enough complaints about the 6 speed that I decided against it.

Cheers,
Mark (EDD)

[DV8]

I had the chance to ride around in the American LE 6-speed for a while, and I loved that thing. I have to admit that I haven't had a lot of experience driving rear-wheel drive, so that was a treat in itself.

[sinsual]

Ours, gotten before EDD and Zemookie got theirs, he has LSD, I don't.


This, still is torn apart, waiting the funds to rebuild the front suspension. It was too heavily rotted out and I don't have a welder to fabricate something from scratch, though, an individually adjustable airbag system has been laid out on paper and will cost in the same ball park.

[Liniah]

I don't have anything to say about a particular car, but I just want to reiterate that I LOVE HAVING A CAR AGAIN. I really do. I was thinking about how much I love having a car and driving while I was on my way home last night.

[3278]

And then there were none.

My car started with six gears, five forward and one reverse. Some months ago, I went down to having only third, fourth, and reverse, which isn't a bad way to go through life, unless of course you need to stop while going up a hill; starting the car in third with its original equipment clutch, after 240,000 miles and six years of being an autocross racing car, isn't what you'd call simple. It is what you'd call terrifying, in traffic.

Recently, the car went down to a single gear, second. No matter where the shifter was in the pattern - even neutral - it was in second. This was exciting when I forgot, and pulled straight into a parking space; generally, my daughter was with me, so she pushed the clutch while I pushed [remember, it's in gear no matter what, so the clutch has to be in in order to push it]. Thankfully, my telescoping ice scraper fits between clutch and seat in such a way as to push the pedal.

I say "thankfully," because my daughter wasn't with me today, when I lost all of my gears. I pushed it into a ditch, and walked the last mile to work. In my sandals. Which don't fit.

What's next? Could this be the end? I don't know. I'm ten thousand dollars in debt, give or take, so a new transmission is out of the question, particularly given that having a shop replace or repair the transmission will cost more than the purchase price of the car. But if I can find just one e30 3-series in a junkyard, or totaled, I could take the transmission and replace mine, and I just might get another couple years out of this bit of German glory I call mine.

[Marius]

Just in time for summertime bicycling.

[3278]

Thanks to a powerful turnout from some of my more dedicated local friends, it's starting to look like by this weekend, I could have the thing next to a pole barn, awaiting only a US$250 transmission [!] and maybe US$80 in bushings, since most of mine are so worn I had trouble finding some of them.

That deserves some explanation: anywhere in the linkage between the shifter and the gearbox itself, any place two pieces of metal need to connect, there's a plastic or urethane bushing, so there's no metal-on-metal contact, both to prevent wear on the metal parts, and to limit the amount of vibration that makes its way into the cockpit; it's all quite clever, really, when you're under it and looking. But despite the installation of a short-throw shifter and several years of autocross, the previous owners [one of whom was a BMW mechanic; my BMW mechanic, in fact, until I saw how he'd treated my girl when she was his] never replaced any of the bushings. As a result, I could move my - short-throw, remember - shifter several inches from side-to-side even when it was in gear. That's fucking insane.

I'll probably go for brass bushings where possible, as they're more precise, wear better, and I don't give a crap about vibration in the cabin. I mean, really: it's a 22-year-old German economy car with a dozen badly-chosen performance mods. It's not like any girl who gets in expects a smooth ride, and any girl getting into any car of mine knows precisely what kind of guy she's getting into a car with, and thus precisely the sort of car to expect. Shit, it's got an exposed radiator [took the grille off...with a deer], no cooling fan, and the aircon has been cut off with boltcutters. Oh, and there's almost no interior that isn't carpet and seats...and I've given serious thought to removing the carpet.

[3278]

Just in time for summertime bicycling.

I actually found a rail line that runs from about a half-block from my house - between me and Tacos Tacos Tacos - to about a half-mile from work, which would cut the walk down from 12 miles to 7!

[3278]

The transmission swap went smoothly enough, and once it was all back together, it was smooth going, easy-peasy. Then I got into Grand Rapids, and all of the sudden, my clutch wouldn't depress. So I drove without a clutch for three days - harder than it sounds - and last night my daughter and I bled the hydraulic system. When this didn't fix the problem, I took off the slave cylinder and boy, is it fucked up. Unfortunately, so is the rod that disengages the clutch, which is bent now, for no reason I can discern, at a 45 degree angle.

So, tonight - or whenever I can get someone to my house to be there to call the cops if the car falls on me - I'm going to pull the slave cylinder again and make certain I can manually disengage the clutch. If that's so, then the problem is solely the slave cylinder, and I'll buy a new one for US$50 and throw it on there. [And then find a better way to bleed the clutch, like a pressure bottle, which Pelican, my parts supplier, recommends.] If, however, I cannot manually disengage the clutch, then we fucked it up putting the transmission on there, and I'll probably just relent and let someone else fix it. I don't think I could get anyone I know to pull that transmission again.

Seriously, if you have a manual, try this: don't use your clutch. Try to drive without ever once using the clutch, not even to get the car moving, or in gear. It's...exciting sometimes. Once you get moving, it's all rev-matching, and not that difficult. But in order to get moving in the first place, you have to essentially use the starter to move the entire car. Good thing mine's light.

[Salvation122]

Soooo I need to replace my timing belt.

I've given thought to doing it myself, but it appears that I'd need several proprietary tools to get the thing apart which are likely to be hard to find or expensive or both, and I'd rather not kludge some shit together to get the tensioner and camshaft sprockets off and you know kill my car.

Anyone have experience in changing timing belts on mid-nineties Japanese engines? Like, without pneumatic tools or even a goddamn torque wrench? How much of a pain in the ass was it?

[3278]

You can actually see my car online, in a most unexpected way. If you use Google Maps and find the intersection of 1st and Broadway, you'll find my car parked on 1st, right in front of what used to be my house, for all-too-brief a time, on the southwest corner of the two streets.

As an added bonus, you can also see the most delightful neighborhood I ever lived in, with a higher number of condemned houses than occupied ones. [And a one-to-one ratio of condemned churches to occupied ones.] I recently found my old house got condemned, too - which is odd, since it's actually a rather nice place - so the ratio's that much worse.

[UncleJoseph]

Holy shit that's funny. Using street view, you can almost get a "next to the car" vantage point. Who the hell just drives around and takes street level pictures for Google?

[Serious Paul]

Huh, I wonder how long ago that was taken, now to see what they have listed in my hood...

[paladin2019]

Holy shit that's funny. Using street view, you can almost get a "next to the car" vantage point. Who the hell just drives around and takes street level pictures for Google?

It's supposed to be a special Googlemobile with cameras all over the place. I figure Jules drives it around and has had to clean it up a few times when spastic passengers make a mess.

[3278]

Holy shit that's funny. Using street view, you can almost get a "next to the car" vantage point. Who the hell just drives around and takes street level pictures for Google?

It's a car with a 360-degree camera on top of it, and a GPS unit. I would kill to be the guy who drives that thing around; what a job, just constantly covering every street in town. Unfortunately, it's not something they do constantly; it could be years before another sweep of GR is done, but someday...