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”

So my Integra is in the shop for an oil change and some other minor items. To make life a little easier, I’ve got a rental for the day. Normally, Acura dealers are supposed to hook you up with a free Acura vehicle as the rental. But this one Acura dealer works a little too closely with Enterprise. At least they cut you a good discount. So they put me in a Volkswagon Jetta.

The seat feels like I’m sitting on a somewhat firm sofa. It grips me pretty well. It is pretty comfy. Yet, I’m not ready to take any quick turns in the car since I feel like I’ll slide out of the seat. I wasn’t able to get the seat and steering wheel in a position that made me feel at home. The positioning felt “ok” but that was about it. Otherwise, the dash looked cool and everything was easy to read. There was tons of head room and leg room. And the ride was nice and smooth, just like the automatic transmission. The car felt like it had some “omph” to it which was nice. But it didn’t feel nimble or responsive like my Integra. But that’s ok. They’re two different cars (the Jetta a 4-door family sedan and the Integra is a sporty hatchback).

As for an Enterprise car, the Jetta was a treat from their usual stable of uber-cheap econo-boxes.
Continue reading “The Jetta Experience”

I autocrossed this last weekend (May 23rd). For the first
time my head wasn’t into it. I don’t know if it was the weather or if I
had other things on my mind. I had a good time. It was out at
Hartville Market which is between Akron and Canton. The course was huge
and I only walked it once. And when I did walk it, it wasn’t a quality
walk. I did get to sleep in on Sunday though and that was good. The
event didn’t start until 12 noon which is much later then our regular
events. I had my camera system with me. Something doesn’t like being
in the sun and I’m thinking my video camera is freaking out versus the
cheap camera mounted on the car. I’ll be looking into this…
Continue reading “Autocrossed this last weekend”

After spending mucho dollars on regular maintenance and 2 needed repairs, the Teg is back in top shape. The repairs made a huge difference in drive-ability. I think I still have house money left over.
Continue reading “Teg Fixed”

Its ALMOST time to put the summer tires on. Next week still has snow forecasted. My summer tires are definitely not rated for snow or ice.

Also car related, I’ve just about fixed all my Tein coilovers (spring perches fused together preventing them to be adjusted and therefore changing the ride height). I’ll probably have them mounted in May.
Continue reading “Almost summer tires time”

The master cylinder was leaking internally which was why the clutch was really quirky. Clutch and brakes now feel a LOT better. Whew…
Continue reading “Clutch problem solved”

An S2000 I can afford!

http://www.honda.co.jp/parts/s2000_ht/craft.html
Continue reading “S2k!”

Yesterday the Teg rolled 100,000 miles. Which means I managed to put 60k miles on it just under 4 years.
Continue reading “Teg rolls 100k miles”

This I think this was the theme for this weekend.

I added a 2nd monitor to my workhorse PC. It rejected the nVidia flavored one by not even booting or getting past POST. Went back to the store and found an ATI flavored one. Life was good but the PC became highly unstable (would lock up after doing something remotely constructive). I took a break and came back and removed all the cards. PC was stable. Added 2nd video card. Still stable. Added the sound card. Life is good. Looks like the modem is going to left out…

The Teg went in for service this weekend too. Heat sheilds were replaced. Upon replacement, the dealer points out the check engine light (CEL) is on (and acts like its been on the for the past couple months and asked how I could have missed it). They checked it out and its a $600-ish O2 sensor/module that is being reported as malfunctioning. Surprisingly, its still under warrant (the car is 7 years old).
Continue reading “Problems Do Have Solutions”