I'm going though my car mode again. By that, I mean I'm constantly looking at cars, and thinking about if I were to buy one which would it be? With that I'm also back into my VW GTI stage again, where I really want one. Yet part of me doesn't want to give up having all wheel drive. Enter the VW R32, this car is amazing, its the GTI with a 3.2 Liter VR6 and the Audi Quattro all wheel drive. How could you go wrong? I don't think you could... but the kicker is its not a cheap car :( They only made them in '04 and '05 and I'm seeing '04's for around 26k+ Which is still way out of my price range. I could go for an Audi A4 and get close to the same car... but it still wouldn't be the same, as they are not hatch backs. Tho I do like the wagon A4. I'm just kinda torn. As a '02 - '03 GTI VR6 is in my price range but doesn't have the all wheel drive. Or I do like the WRX as well. Couldn't afford the STi, but I can probably find a sup'd up WRX that would be close to the STi performance wise in the same price range. But again, no hatchback, and the wagon version is also appealing (given a certain amount of aftermarket parts). However then I would also have to get used to the feeling I have when sitting in a WRX. Don't get me wrong I love them, however I feel like a little kid when I sit in them... and not in a good way... There is alot of head room in a WRX, and since I'm not that tall, it makes me feel even shorter. But perhaps I've just grown accustomed to tighter fitting cars with my first car a '91 Maxima, and my current car the '98 Civic. I don't get the same feeling when I sit in an Evo or GTI, so that makes me resist wanting to just "get used to it".
Not sure what I'll do just yet, and I am probably going to wait until Elissa graduates from school anyway before I make any changes to the current status quo.
July 10, 2005 Posted by mitch |
civic |
I was on my way to school last thursday, and I stoped at a Chevron to fill up. After, I turned the key on my car to start it and nothing... It didn't turn over... I still had the radio tho... which I thought was interesting however, this didn't come completly by supprise. Oh no... I should know better I know... when theres problems get them fixed don't delay. I delayed... I knew it probably was the alternator, but the battery probably needs to be changed too. Anyway, I called Elissa to come jump me so I could get it home atleast. After turning in my two papers for school, we jumped my car and I drove it straight to AutoZone. They put a tester on it and said the alternator wasn't putting out anything. Figures, the year or so I ran my sub on it probably did it in. My lights would dim occasionally, so I knew it was comming just never got around to changing it.
Anyway, I picked up the alternator and went over to my parents to get it changed out. Looking at it it didn't look like it was going to be all that bad to change (which was the reason I considered it in the first place). However, the bottom bolt on the alternator did not want to be loosened... the nut wouldn't budge... I worked on it for probably atleast two hours... Untill I had rounded it off. Then I was done for the night. I started again friday night at 9:00PM because it was over 100 degrees that day, and I hate working in the heat. I brought my air compressor and used a cutting wheel to cut off the nut. Suprisingly enough the bolt slid right out after I completly removed the nut... Not sure why the nut wouldn't come off because it wasn't rusted and I tried turning it both ways (which seemed illogical... it should have spun off to the left like everything else does...) *shrug* don't know if it might had gotten some kinda charge from the alternator and fused to the bolt or what... either way it didn't matter at this point. Once I got the bolt out, pulling the alternator out proved to be a little more difficult than I would have liked. I ended up having to remove the power steering line from the pump. This translated into loosing the whole overflow... Pulling it out and putting in the new one was fairly simple after that.
I finished up around 1am saturday morning and started up my car to admire my handy work. Only to have it screetching at me... It was my power steering pump... it didn't like how low it was on oil. So I ended up leaving it again for the rest of the night, and comming back later that morning with honda power steering fluid.
After adding it, it worked like a champ... It was even idling alot better than it has for a while. Never knew its idling poorly would have been caused by a bad alternator.... live and learn I guess :)
January 11, 2005 Posted by mitch |
cars, civic |
What is it about cars that draws guys to them? I mean more than just a way to get from point A to point B. I'm also sure you could theorize that its just something wired in a man's brain that causes him to pursue physical objects. I don't really know the answer, however I do know, I'm in love with cars. For a couple years now, even before I bought my Civic I've wanted a Volkswagon GTI(Golf). However, at that time I was weary of what Consumer Reports have said, and I knew Civics have so much potential anyway, I figured I'd just make my Civic into what I wanted. Well, since then I've gotten married. (not to say that was a bad thing or a bad decision) Its just now there are more important things going on in my life than investing thousands into making the Civic something I've wanted. Also, Honda's are known for their reliability. German cars reliability has remained kinda foreign to me. I've been looking around and from what I've found, they are reliable, just require attention. When they have schedualed maintenance, you take care of it right then or you will have bigger problems to deal with later. Which is something most people take for granted. To them a car is a mode of transportation, and maintenance is always the last thing on their mind. Anyway, I figure eventually I'm going to be buying my coveted BMW M3 one day... when I can afford it. In which case it would be nice to know more about German cars and how they work a bit better.
June 12, 2004 Posted by mitch |
civic |
I've had my new Eibach springs installed now for a week and two days... and I love how much it improved the handling. However, my alignment has been out probably since I put on my 17" rims anyway... so my rear tires have been wearing on the inside badly... I took it in to get aligned and $75 later, it can't be. Because of the after market springs, I need to buy some after market ball joints for the front and aftermarket lower control arms for the rear to be able to bring it fully into alignment. Kinda sucks. Ya know, I really wish there was a web site (maybe there is, I just haven't found it yet) that would give you how-to's and such for car mods... Like say "if your going to do this to this year of car, do this, and watch out for this" type of thing. Something that has been in the computer/software world for a long time. *shrug* Guess I could start one... atleast for my Civic... Anyway, I'll have all my updates here as far as mods to my civic... and I'm going to be working on a page for it as soon as I can. Which should be soon hopefully.
June 5, 2004 Posted by mitch |
civic |
Thursday night, my friend (dave) and I installed my Eibach Pro Kit Lowering Springs (1.3 inch drop). We were working untill just about midnight on them (started after work). I had read that people usually only took 1.5 hours to install them... I'm not sure, but they must be on something... I'm not sure how anyone could have installed them all that quickly.... Granted, I think knowing what we do now about installing them, I think we could have done it MUCH faster than the ~6 hours it took us.... and we'll get a chance soon too, the process of lowering my car blows the stock shocks that are in it still. We'll get to do it all again. The rear from start to finish only took us 1.5 hours which wasn't bad. They were so easy. The first front one we did however... I got a pin stuck that I was using to bang out a bolt that held in the fork for the strut... and that took us a good half hour atleast to remove. Man... lessons learned. The second front spring took us probably about an hour and a half to swap out... which was about half the time the first one took...
June 2, 2004 Posted by mitch |
civic |
My springs for my civic arrived yesterday. I'm excited. A friend from work (Dave) and I are going to be installing them tomarrow after work. When its all said and done, my civic should be about 1.5" lower and handle MUCH better. I will then need to get it in for an alignment, and I'm pretty sure i need to replace my two rear tires anyway... (i hope its just because the alignment is already off) Because it looks like they've been wearing funny since I got my rims... and they've been slowly getting worse as time went on. Anyway, I hope to get pictures and everything as soon as I can.
