The Car Mod Thread...

Lightweight alloy clamps are Fast _and_ Furious!









... but mostly just Furious.

 

I think any repair where you're talking about getting into the engine internals classifies as a "major" repair.

Maybe you should quit talking so much trash about supposedly unreliable and expensive to repair European marques if you can't see your own experiences with your "reliable" Daewoo are far from normal, especially on a car with less than 50,000 miles.

 

140,000 miles on my American built Lincoln LS. The vast majority of the work I've done on it has been maintenance-and preventative maintenance at that.

I'm lumping fluids, tires, belts, bulbs, filters, brakes, spark plugs, ignition coils, and tires into the maintenance/preventative maintenance category. I realize that's a lot, but they're things that wear out on ANY car in that number of miles or are done to prevent catastrophic failure(fortunately, I have timing chains, which are considered to be a lifetime part).

I've had exactly two parts break in the course of normal maintenance. The first was the passenger side front window regulator. The second was a radiator hose-or more correctly a plastic T joint that hooked three rubber hoses-together that "exploded" on the side of the interstate. That's the only time I've had something happen that truly rendered the car undriveable and required a tow. I don't think that's too bad for the 7 years I've had the car and 80,000 miles I've put on it.

Of course, there was also the recent mirror repair, but that's firmly in the category of "stupid mistake."

 

It's not a lot, that all definitely falls into regular maintenance and is stuff you'd have to do on any car. Matthew is doing work on his Daewoo that no car with 45,000 miles should ever need done and yet he goes around saying how it's so much more reliable than other vehicles.

 

Oh man, I must've missed that you own an LS! Possibly the last great Lincoln Ford has ever made. I remember drooling over them when I was young.

One of my neighbors used to have a manual one with the V6 way back.

 

I fell in love with them the first time I saw them, and thanks to the horrendous resale value of American cars I was able to pick up an '04 model with a $45K sticker price for $11000 in 2008.

Mine is the V8 "Sport" model, which basically means that it has sport tuned suspension and a few cosmetic treatments(body colored trim rather than chrome, brushed aluminum inside in place of wood). It still love the car-it handles great, and I get a grin every time I step on the gas and hear the V8(with true dual exhaust!) roar to life.

The manual V6 was something special-if I found a decent one, I'd probably buy it and make it a "weekend driver." As a whole, I prefer the V8 models(many American makers tie specific trim packages and interior features to higher end engines) as well as(slightly) updated styling of the '03 and later models over the '00-02.

I love the DEW-98 platform as well as the AJ-V8 so much that I've actually considered buying a Jaguar XF when the day comes that I can no longer reasonably maintain my car. When Ford sold off Jaguar, both the platform and engine(shared at the time with the S-type) went with Jaguar.

My dad has a 2010 MKZ-the corporate replacement for the LS(and basically a Fusion), but it doesn't hold a candle to the LS.

 

127,XXX miles on the old Jeep and the one actual repair was to replace the wiper motor I love simple old cars. The only thing that would make it better is if it was a 80's CJ

 

My grandfather has a 2002 Toyota Tacoma (Single cab, 4x4, manual) he uses to tow his boat (that he doesn't use) and haul around big things. Last fall it had 32,000 miles. It sits for the entire winter in New England as he spends the winter in Florida. Aside from maintenance, there have been zero issues with it. My dad has a Triumph GT6 that seemingly has fewer problems than your car and it is 40 something years old.

You may only put 2000 miles on your car a year, but you haven't really described that you've had it "sit", as in not be used for extended periods of time. I've just been under the impression you just don't drive very far. If you do not use your car for an extended period of time, it's a smart idea to prepare it for sitting. The smart thing to do would be drive it around every week so its not "sitting".

Which has to do with what? My dad owned a Suburban in the 90's, I want to say a 1996? That thing had a 42 gallon gas tank! I remember him complaining about how it cost over $60 to fill up the tank LOL.

Theoretically any part can fail at anytime, so that's not really an argument. I think the point is at this point in time your car's value is pretty low, even lower considering the condition that it's in. I think people are pointing out that it's a money pit, in the sense you'll be putting more money into this car than it's worth.

 

Yes, brakes and tires are normal maintenance.

But $400 has not fixed everything that's wrong with the car. You want to replace the timing belt because you said 45,000 is the suggested interval (which sounds very short IMO), but that's preventative. You need a new CAM sensor. You have oil leaks that you need to take care of. Supposedly you have oil coming out of the spark plugs, which is not a good sign. You have a 15mph idle. You have this "drag" issue that no one can pinpoint. You have possible emissions issues given your CEL light (that sound unrelated to the CAM sensor). Your airbags don't work. Your AC doesn't work. Etc

If the "drag" thing isn't pulling you to one side or the other, I'm thinking it might be a transmission issue...

 

@MatthewLTL I get 15 MPG on the Suburban if I baby it and 10 if I have a 7,500 lbs trailer attached with the tow controller running.

I am not sure how you increased the idle speed on the Daewoo. Most cars even from the late 80s have idle speeds pre-programmed into the ECU. My Suburban which has TBI (Throttle Body Injection) does not allow me to adjust the idle speed and it is by far the most simplistic fuel injection system compared to the newer systems on modern cars. If you have your car running at high idle constantly and the vehicle is an automatic, do you realize what wear and tear that puts on the transmission? You are sitting at a stop light with your foot on the brake and the engine stays spinning at ~1,500 RPM (since the idle speed is increased). There is only one place for the slippage to occur and that is in the transmission. Most vehicles idle at ~700-900 RPM for a reason.

I do not understand why you would disable the airbags in your vehicle. My Suburban lacks airbags but it is built like a tank. From a safety aspect, airbags save lives and in the horrific event you are involved in a collision your vehicle is already going to sustain serious damage and the airbag is to help absorb the shock and prevent you slamming your head into the wheel or windows. Your airbags being disabled do not affect us at all unlike your fishtailing around corners, but take my advice and keep them enabled.

Timing belts should be religiously changed at the interval. Since modern vehicles have interference engines, you do not want a timing belt to snap. Is a $75 belt really worth risking a $750 engine?

Why do you not repair the oil leaks and the cam sensor? You may have a small leak now, but leaks get bigger. All you need is for the engine to suck air in the pan for a few seconds for permanent damage to occur all because you didn't know a bit more oil than you thought leaked out.

 

Oh no...please don't start this debate again!

(BTW, you're the smart one, Altemose, since your vehicle doesn't have a timing belt or chain at all! )

 

Here's a little something I conjured up in my 2009 G8 GXP.

 

Thats a cool little modification there. How do the controls work? Is that using the stock LCD?

I can tell you our OP is not a fan any infotainment systems, period. (Unless it maybe had a PocketPC interface).

 

Super cool. I almost started a CarPC project a few times, just never panned out. The AppleTV is a neat idea - is it JB'ed so you can use local storage?

Side note, love the G8, it's a real sleeper too

 

Speaking of car mods, I just saw these pictures online.

 

I think they missed a couple of spots for "AMG" badges. I especially love the Porsche turbo script ...

 

Could be worse. I saw AMG badges on an Acura TSX once.

 

Hahaha, true, the car in the pics is at least a Mercedes.

 

I have a custom tag:

DAWUKLR

*booya*

 

@MatthewLTL It is your vehicle but do understand that your "modifications" do cause increased wear of critical parts.

 

It is the stock LCD, and entirely stock connections. The factory radio has a rear auxiliary port which I fabricated a composite connection for. I then ran this to an HDMI to composite converter (one that supports HDCP) and connected to my Apple TV. Both of these are (temporarily) running to an inverter plugged into the 12V port just in front of the shifter.

AppleTV was great in terms of interface usability, physical dimensions and connectivity to and from other devices. AirPlay from my phone to turn the display into a nav system is awesome, though this requires flashing the radio to bypass the video in motion block.

It's not currently jailbroken, but I also have a hotspot installed in the car with a 10GB data plan for streaming all of my music through iTunes Match, movies through Netflix, etc, etc.

Thanks for the compliments. It definitely is a sleeper, and this one happens to be one of 9 of its build, so might be worth something to someone someday.