Have a nice day, eh?
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| alchu Have a nice day, eh? |
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Monday, March 29, 2004 Edit for Matt (right click save as) As you all know, earlier this year, my Integra was stolen, and I replaced it with a 2000 VW Jetta (VR6) at the end of January. Since it was a used car, I was unsure of all the maintenance that had been done on the car in the past. I did a quick inspection of the car at the beginning of this month and decided that the rear brake pads could be replaced. Since rotors are cheap ($40 for the pair at the rear) I decided to replace those as well. Here's the list of stuff I wanted to do for the car: air filter replace fuel filter replace sparkplug change replace cabin air filter bleed brake fluid replace rear brakes (rotors/pads) Oil/filter change (Mobil 1 0w40) Replace Manual Transmission Fluid At the beginning of the month, I got under the car and replaced my fuel filter. Pretty easy job. I tried 2 times to change my sparkplugs, but ended up not having the right tools for the job. So I did some research and got all the necessary tools and supplies for the rest of the items on my list. So this past Saturday was to be the day that I did all of my maintenance for the car. I'm going to DC/Maryland/Virginia with Betty to visit friends this coming weekend, and so I wanted the car to be in top running condition for the trip. I had done the fuel filter, so I needed to do the rest of the maintenance. I changed my sparkplugs (with the right tools, a very easy job) and cleaned out the pollen/cabin air filter (the filter looked good enough that it didn't need replacing, I just cleaned it out a bit). The next few steps requires the car to be lifted. In particular, bleeding brakes requires the wheels to be off the car. So I elicited the help of Xavier to drive the car up on ramps, jack the rear of the car, place the rear of the car on jackstands, then attempt to switch out the ramps for jackstands in the front. I originally thought that driving the car up on ramps, then transferring the car to jackstands would be an easy, smooth transition. I soon discovered that this was WAYYY too complicated and involved. I should have just jacked the front, then jacked the rear without bothering with the ramps at all. Ah well. By then, it was time for lunch, so I went in with X to eat what my mom had prepared (my folks were here this weekend, visiting). During lunch, Dad turns to me and says "So how are you going get those wheels off your car?" I'm like "Uh, I'll just unbolt them" "How? now that the car's in the air, the wheels will just spin, not the bolts. You're supposed to loosen the bolts first, THEN jack the car." Oops. After lunch, I go back outside, and sure enough, the wheels spin, the bolts don't. Time to drop the car, loosen the bolts, and jack the car up again. This time, no ramps, so it doesn't take me nearly as long. Xavier's getting ready to go see his folks who are in town, too, so my dad comes out to help me. After the car was in the air, the wheels come off, we bled the brake system, replaced the rear brake pads and rotors, put the wheels back on and dropped the car again. (this one run-on sentence took 10 seconds to write, but in reality the job took us about 3 hours). After taking the car out for a spin to test the brakes and heat up the oil, the car was back up on the ramps, and I changed out my oil. I started the day at 11:00am (after it stopped raining) and had all the tools packed up and was back in the house for a shower at 7:30pm. yeah, 8 and a half hours, but I think a good 2 hours of that was jacking, lowering, and rejacking the car. Scary stuff! if you get under there and the car falls on you, you die! Anyhow, I think I could do all of that much more quickly now, but the first time is always a learning experience, right? I'm kinda sore now. Amount saved (doing it myself versus paying someone else to do it): Probably not much at all. But I get to keep the tools, and now I know that I can do that stuff :) And it proves that I'm a manly man, right? Right. Completed maintenance: -Replace Air filter (K&N Drop-in) -Replace Fuel filter -cleaned pollen/cabin air filter -replace spark plugs -replace oil filter -change oil (Mobil 1 0w40) -bleed brake fluid -replace rear brake rotors (brembo) -replace rear brake pads (mintex redbox) Maintenance to do: -replace transmission fluid -flush radiator posted by Allan | 3/29/2004 10:00:00 AM | 12 comments Tuesday, March 09, 2004 =) Counterfit bill? posted by Allan | 3/09/2004 05:12:00 PM | 3 comments Friday, March 05, 2004 Volvo for women Ladies, are you offended? "But there are design features that men may not have considered: headrests with room for ponytails, a centre console free of a gear shift to make room for handbags, and seat covers that can be changed at whim." posted by Allan | 3/05/2004 04:44:00 PM | 5 comments Thursday, March 04, 2004 interesting =) Guess I'm not schizoid like John, but I'm moderately Histrionic and Narcissistic. ugh.
posted by Allan | 3/04/2004 09:32:00 AM | 4 comments |
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