I picked it up today. Its running and feeling great. Maybe I’ll make a clock out of the old fly wheel…
Continue reading “The Teg is Back!”

Ugh. I miss my car! Word is the shop had some stuff come up and they haven’t been able to work on mine. So they plan to get to it on Monday. I’m still stuck with this Taurus. The thing drinks gas! I’m driving it casually and its getting about 19mpg. Probably typical for most automatics, it has a lot of lag from the point in time when your brain says, “time to speed up” and your foot mashes the gas to when the car actually responds with a downshift and moderate acceleration. I do have to admit the ride is very quiet. The seating position is a lot more comfortable than the Focus. I feel I can micro-manage the windshield wipers with all the various variable speeds they have.

I really wished I got stuck with an Acura TSX or even an RSX.
Continue reading “Teg-less for the weekend”

Acura is holding onto my Teg until Friday. They apparently got backed up today and had just started the clutch install.
Continue reading “Teg-less on turkey day”

So Saturday Olessia, John, and I went down to Columbus to see my sister’s new house. It was her house warming party and it was a good time. I drove everyone down since Olessia’s Civic was getting worked on on Monday. No problems going down. But coming back, we decided we’d pick up a snack at Friendly’s at 71N and Bagley Road. Traffic light number 1 wasn’t a problem. And the car pulled away fine from traffic light number 2, but after leaving first gear it wouldn’t go into any gear after that. I managed to coast the car into Friendly’s. Olessia and John pushed it into a parking space. Then I called AAA for a tow.

After some troubleshooting with Bob on the phone, we had a hunch to what the problem was. I tried one more time to start the car with it in gear and it fired up fine. I was able to shift fine. So I called off the tow and we went in to eat. We made it home without any problems.

Sunday, it almost seemed fine. Until I returned home and put the car in 2nd gear and parked. I came back and it got stuck in gear again. So a visit to Acura on Monday was in order.

Monday I dropped it off. I was surprised they were willing to get me in. They had problems with it as well. Turns out it needs a new clutch. Ugh. They got the order in before 1pm and the parts showed up this afternoon. The Teg is now being worked on and returned back to a factory clutch (moving from DSP back to GS or STS in autocross terms).

Good news is Olessia’s Civic is back normal. It had its master cylinder replaced. Then she took it in for its e-Check. She told me the car started steaming after the test. She popped the hood and was able to put water in the radiator. She then took it to a local shop and they found the spring on the radiator cap broke. She replaced it and this morning had the water flushed and coolant put back in. Whew!
Continue reading “Ack! 8000 rpms and no where to go”

Light turns green, engage first gear and apply throttle to complete the right turn.

Scope out the traffic. Two lumbering trucks trying to make their way onto 271S in the left lane and I’m in the right lane also wishing to get on 271S.

Gently and slowly squeeze the throttle and evaluate the situation: Fall in line behind the trucks or zip in front of them?

The engine whine reminds me we’re still in first gear. 5000 rpms. Shift to second.

All clear?

Yup. As the Beastie Boys once said, “Kick it!”

The wind and road noise gets drowned out in no time as the engine revs increase.

The engine pitch changes as the intake opens wider to gulp more air. Left lane change now in progress.

Lane change complete. A quick look back and the trucks barely fill the rear window. The car is still pulling and the engine pitch is reaching its peak. 7500 rpms and climbing. Time to shift! Shift to third.

Evaluate the situation: Time to merge onto 271S. The right lane becomes an exit only lane. Target lane is the middle lane.

Right lane clear?

Negative. Early ’90’s vintage rusted out mini van approaching for intercept.

Engine whine status implies plenty of third gear left and there’s plenty of empty pavement ahead. Complete the lane change.

Just like the trucks, the mini van no longer dominates the rear window view. Shift to fourth.

Middle lane clear. Complete lane change and shift to fifth.

Time to relax and reminisce about the sight, sounds, and g-forces of another fun close encounter with the 8000 rpm red line. This is therapy.
Continue reading “What would you do with 8000 rpms?”

The other night I discovered the reason Olessia’s Civic was for sale. I drove Olessia to dinner in it and the clutch felt like it was catching the mat. The floor mat does slide around so while driving (eh, don’t try this at home) I pulled it out. Yup, the clutch still felt like it was catching the mat. I had 2 flash backs almost at the same time:

1. Honda put out a service bulletin for Honda service departments to pin the floor mat to the floor. When I had my ’98 Civic, I took it in when it was in for service and they popped a pin which secured the mat from moving around. It never really was a problem, but it was free. This is really what Olessia’s ’95 Civic needs!

2. This clutch feels just like what the clutch on my Teg felt like last year! Its a master or slave cylinder problem. [insert potty language here]

Before heading into the restaurant, I ran my hand along the floor and where the clutch meets. Eh, this doesn’t feel right. I pull my hand out and a couple fingers are covered in black gunk, like grease and oil. Slave cylinder is leaking! Whew! Its the cheaper of the two cylinders.

We’re taking the Civic to the shop next week. In the meantime, I just need to keep the Civic topped off with brake fluid. I’m using the bottle of brake fluid the Acura service department hooked me up with to hold the Teg over before its servicing.

Otherwise, the Civic seems to be doing great. I think it’ll need a nickname…
Continue reading “Civic Uh Oh”

After getting over the news of the goldfish, Olessia told me her truck needed a lot of work. So much work that she was told to go to Isuzu to get the engine fixed before any other work is completed. Her truck has been making an ugly engine ticking sound. On top of this, the truck has about 3 other major issues with it. Figuring that the engine repair would be costly for a V6 engine, we figured a new car was needed.

One thought was to let Olessia use the Teg while I found either a new car or a beater. We went out shopping on Saturday and ran into a ’95 Honda Civic LX 4 door. It had 138k miles on it and I managed to get the dealer down from $4k to $3300 and we went for it.

Its not the ideal time for either of us to do this, but there weren’t any cheaper alternatives.
Continue reading “Olessia’s truck declared terminal”