Altered Mental Status (1G AWD 5spd)

[CrackedDSM]

Keep in mind that I haven't used any Plastidip product since 2018, and formula or other changes may have occurred since then, but I do not recommend using it for anything based on the experience that I have.

I absolutely loved the idea of a peelable coating when it first came out. As soon as I found the "right" application and was able to get a good bit from the local store, I was waving my money for that shit. However, I found the overall finish AND the longevity to be nothing short of horrible - no, atrociously shit... I think part of this was the spray nozzle that hardly atomized the thinnest fluid on the planet, yet was spraying a fluid that was quite thick in comparison to any paints (which I'm sure that they've revised or replaced these days, or I damn hope so). The other part of what I found horrible- or atrocious shit was that the final finish would fade and lose sheen in like 2 months (again, this may have been revised or otherwise improved since 7 years ago. (Double paranthesis here, was 2018 really 7 f***ing years ago? Could have been last year in my mind)).

Not saying that anyone shouldn't try or recommend the product at all, just saying that my initial experience was terrible and I definitely wouldn't use it on anything that I wouldn't expect to recoat in the coming months, or was trying to really show off. But maybe I jumped on the product when it was too new. Let me know.

The old wipers I took off were plastidipped over a year ago. I don’t follow directions on the can, what I do is spray a very small super light first coat like you would spray paint, and give it 15 minutes. Then I do several heavy coats allowing 15-30 mins of dry time in between.

They always turn out level and perfect. You can see that it levels itself out so well it mimicks the surface underneath.

I can take a picture to show how well the old wipers held up for a year in the Florida heat, winter, snow, and pollen.

I do recall a number of years ago using plastidip for the lower window rails on a 1G and it not turning out well. It never stuck like there was a mixing problem. A new can solved it.

Also, no issues with spraying. Spray came out great and not lumpy.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Question for you guys, what would make a whirring or roaring noise at 60mph? It goes away on decel and doesn’t change at all if you swerve the wheel side to side. It’s only at 60mph too. No grinding or clunking or etc.


Weirdest stuff ever. If you touch the accelerator at 60mph even if you’re not accelerating(like just cruising/maintaining) it makes the noise. Slower or faster and noise is gone. Let off the gas, gone.

Eh?

 

[Anfurnyy]

Question for you guys, what would make a whirring or roaring noise at 60mph? It goes away on decel and doesn’t change at all if you swerve the wheel side to side. It’s only at 60mph too. No grinding or clunking or etc.


Weirdest stuff ever. If you touch the accelerator at 60mph even if you’re not accelerating(like just cruising/maintaining) it makes the noise. Slower or faster and noise is gone. Let off the gas, gone.

Eh?

My opinion is either transmission, t-case, or rear diff. I'd start my checking fluid if you haven't already.

Only reason I can think of why it would stop happening in decel is how the forward facing gear lash fits forwards vs backwards if that makes sense? Here you can see the pinion is slightly "C" shaped. When you let off, it goes away because the backside of the teeth are now getting all the load? This is the t-case pinion.


I don't have any guesses why it would be only 60mph though.

 

[CrackedDSM]

My opinion is either transmission, t-case, or rear diff. I'd start my checking fluid if you haven't already.

Only reason I can think of why it would stop happening in decel is how the forward facing gear lash fits forwards vs backwards if that makes
sense? Here you can see the pinion is slightly "C" shaped. When you let off, it goes away because the backside of the teeth are now getting all the load? This is the t-case pinion.
View attachment 762276

I don't have any guesses why it would be only 60mph though.

Weird AF man. I guess I’ll check the fluids.

Could it be anything related to driveshaft or tires?

 

[99dsmer4g63]

Weird AF man. I guess I’ll check the fluids.

Could it be anything related to driveshaft or tires?

Throw it in neutral next time and see if the noise is still present at 60.

-Daniel

 

[CrackedDSM]

Throw it in neutral next time and see if the noise is still present at 60.

-Daniel

I’m 99.9% sure if I throw it into neutral at 60 it’ll go quiet.

I’ll check on my way home to be sure. But when I let off the gas at 60 it’ll immediately stop.

 

[99dsmer4g63]

If it goes quiet then you can rule out tires and most of the things spinning in the wheel bearing area since you said turning and suspension roll doesn’t change it either.

If it returns while you have tension on the drivetrain I would suspect something being worn or loose, could be a bad u joint in the driveline.

Good luck

-Daniel

 

[CrackedDSM]

If it goes quiet then you can rule out tires and most of the things spinning in the wheel bearing area since you said turning and suspension roll doesn’t change it either.

If it returns while you have tension on the drivetrain I would suspect something being worn or loose, could be a bad u joint in the driveline.

Good luck

-Daniel

The car did come with all new u joints. They’re the greasable kind so I wasn’t sure if I should use them or not, but yeah. Everything else he included with the car I’ve had to use because it needed replacing.

 

[99dsmer4g63]

I replaced my ranger’s 2 pc driveshaft with 1 piece driveshaft from a newer one to eliminate a slip joint in the shaft. U joints felt fine before pulling it at a junkyard and after I installed it in mine.

After feeling a vibration near highway speed I replaced both joints and problem solved. Seemed more consistent than what you make yours to be though at higher speeds but id investigate that first for sure still.

Point is sometimes that are not too obvious if you get under there to shake the shaft around. Make sure it’s not in gear or have tension on it when you check too.

-Daniel

 

[CrackedDSM]

Tried to start from scratch on the tune, and yeah. This thing just hates trying to tune it properly. Lol.

Reset VE table to stock, ignore the MAFComp table, set deadtimes according to ECMTuning's findings, basically start over on everything, and car starts. Cool.

Try to dial in deadtimes using the fuel tab, and it just won't seem to get CombinedFT down to 0. It swings continuously, the best I could do is make it swing from +5 to -9%. It never got + or -3% or less. Down to -305 deadtimes, still not 0% combined FT and AFRest/ActualWB don't really match perfectly.

Say screw it, go for a drive anyway. Absolute pure and utter failure. It barely drives. Like reads 22:1 on the wideband. It idles fine, but driving it is out of the question.

Give it more global fuel trying to even it out, and it drives a little better at 17-18:1 AFR during cruise, but idle is a nightmare at the point. CombinedFT is taking like -20% out at idle, and afrest/wideband are way out of whack. Trying to adjust VE cells at idle doesn't seem to do anything, and after I tried to reset everything to how it was before, CombinedFT stayed stubbornly at like -18% and nothing I did seemed to affect fuel trims, even when I reset fuel trims via the ECU drop down menu.


At this point, I gave up and went back to the old "wrong way to tune" settings and just added more fuel in a few spots. Also adjusted cranking fuel trims via directaccess so it wasn't so rich on first start up when it was cold, seemed to help. Car absolutely rips on full E85, man. It's flowing 34lbs/min at 19lbs of boost. That's what it was flowing before at like 24. Feels way better. So, like it or not, I'm just gonna keep the settings I have now. I don't have the time or the patience, or the road space to keep messing with this just to make other people happy and say its "tuned properly". It runs the AFR I want, it cruises fine, it idles well enough as to be expected...I'm calling it done.


Otherwise, haven't been able to check anything else. I did fix the intake pipe though, it was starting to bug me because it kept trying to pop off the compressor.

 

[CrackedDSM]

More positive note, after ripping the car on boost several times I can confirm the new dipstick keeps all the oil in the oil pan and nowhere near the heatshield or exhaust manifold or alternator. Yay! Stoked about that.


Honestly...I hate even posting this, you have no idea...but I'm considering just paying to get the car professionally tuned. I've had the biggest mouth when it comes to this, but fact is I work on an ambulance and have a family. I just do not have the time to invest in doing this myself. I have no doubt I could do it if I had about a week off to just continually tweak it but honestly...meh. If I get the car professionally tuned I feel like that'd go a long way to learning and I could make changes myself at that point. Either way.


IDK. Might change my mind, and I might not. We'll see. As far as my howling noise at 50-60mph, I'm gonna check fluids and stuff today and see but honestly I'm pretty convinced at this point that the rear diff is gonna need to be entirely replaced. I have two spares thankfully.


Trying not to be negative, so I'll just state simply I'm getting really tired of having to work on this car and replace things. It's down for weeks, I spend really good money on high quality parts, I assemble it back together...and the car runs for a week before I need to take it back down and replace stuff again. Is this what owning a DSM is like, or is there eventually a happy medium where the car runs for a good long time and just needs maintenance? Genuine question. Like...if I rebuild the entire driveshaft, get the JXB carrier bearing kit, rebuild the 4 bolt rear diff I have with new parts after setting all the proper preload shit...at that point legitimately everything to do with the car that involves MOVING the car will be brand new. What could go wrong or need replacing at THAT point?

IDK. Not being negative or dramatic or looking for pity, but I'm not gonna keep doing this for much longer. The return on emotional investment is deep in the red right now and if it doesn't start seeing green I may have to make a hard decision.

 

[1cleangsx]

I would say first off just take a deep breath and step away from the car . These things can be very taxing on you mentally and physically. I always told myself driving it was 50/50 excitement/anxiety . Don’t forget how far this car has come because of your efforts, I think she’ll continue to reward you with more good times if your patient, maybe just address one issue at a time? Anyways keep pushing!

 

[jesse12345]

I had a guy on here tune my car just because I wanted to just hop in and enjoy. I have wide open back roads so it went fairly smooth. I for sure would like to learn how to tune one day, but that day won't be anytime soon. I support whatever you decide.

 

[CrackedDSM]

I would say first off just take a deep breath and step away from the car . These things can be very taxing on you mentally and physically. I always told myself driving it was 50/50 excitement/anxiety . Don’t forget how far this car has come because of your efforts, I think she’ll continue to reward you with more good times if your patient, maybe just address one issue at a time? Anyways keep pushing!

It's good advice, but man. At some point this thing needs to just stop f*cking with me and let me drive it for at least a couple months.

I just don't have the tools, garage, equipment, or know-how to rebuild a rear differential. I guess I can just throw on one of my spare 3 bolt rears, but I really honestly don't want to have to do that either.

Are all of yalls cars perfectly quiet at 50-60mph? You don't hear ANY kind of whine, road noise, or ANYTHING? I've got all four mounts on this engine and trans are prothane mounts. Idk. I guess I have no choice.

Can someone explain to me what I'm looking for when I crawl under the car later and start looking at the driveshaft and stuff? What do I look for that's "bad" with the driveshaft, or the u-joints. What do I look for that's "bad" with the rear diff?


If this car was a real person I would buy life insurance for it and then smother it.

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

I'd say first off, grab the driveshaft and try to wiggle or shake it. Find any loose places. I had a bad carrier bearing on my automatic car so I tossed in a spare DS and my noise went away. I haven't rebuilt the old one yet (I think it's in 2 pc's now). Check for pinion slop while you're there too.

 

[Justin DuBois]

It's good advice, but man. At some point this thing needs to just stop f*cking with me and let me drive it for at least a couple months.

I just don't have the tools, garage, equipment, or know-how to rebuild a rear differential. I guess I can just throw on one of my spare 3 bolt rears, but I really honestly don't want to have to do that either.

Are all of yalls cars perfectly quiet at 50-60mph? You don't hear ANY kind of whine, road noise, or ANYTHING? I've got all four mounts on this engine and trans are prothane mounts. Idk. I guess I have no choice.

Can someone explain to me what I'm looking for when I crawl under the car later and start looking at the driveshaft and stuff? What do I look for that's "bad" with the driveshaft, or the u-joints. What do I look for that's "bad" with the rear diff?


If this car was a real person I would buy life insurance for it and then smother it.

In my case - U-Joints and Bushings - I just knew they had reached the age of needing to be replaced. If you are driving slow in 2nd gear and light lift and then light go on the throttle - what happens? Big clunky noises? Engagement delay? Herky Jerky? When you have your driveline tight, the car feels "connected" to your foot.
Regards the howling - At least make sure the fluids are toped off in the diff and transfer case. Stock bushings and carrier bearings etc, do try and isolate drive line (gear) noises from the chassis. When I got Dude's near solid bushings installed, the gear noises definitely increased - but in a gnarly race car kind of way. This is something you need to be aware of. If you want a quiet ride - Don't get solid bushings.

 

[CrackedDSM]

In my case - U-Joints and Bushings - I just knew they had reached the age of needing to be replaced. If you are driving slow in 2nd gear and light lift and then light go on the throttle - what happens? Big clunky noises? Engagement delay? Herky Jerky? When you have your driveline tight, the car feels "connected" to your foot.
Regards the howling - At least make sure the fluids are toped off in the diff and transfer case. Stock bushings and carrier bearings etc, do try and isolate drive line (gear) noises from the chassis. When I got Dude's near solid bushings installed, the gear noises definitely increased - but in a gnarly race car kind of way. This is something you need to be aware of. If you want a quiet ride - Don't get solid bushings.

Slow in 2nd and light on/off throttle is smooth. No jerking or bucking. Response is immediate and proportional to how heavy or light throttle input is. If you ignore the noise it drives and rides incredibly smooth. Bumps in the road, snap on heavy accelerating, in all conditions I can think of it’s fluid and smooth. The noise doesn’t bother me per se, I mainly just worry if it’s normal or abnormal. I’m gonna check fluid level and if it’s fine, probably just send it. If I start hearing grinding or clunking then I’ll know.

Is there a way I can check driveshaft slop or anything like that?

 

[CrackedDSM]

Checked the fluid level in the rear diff, it's nice and full. Same amount that I put in it months and months ago. I let more than a little drain out too so I could look at it, and it looks mint. It's lightweight shockproof and there is absolutely nothing in it. No metal, no dirt, no silver...nothing. Happy with the rear diff.


I attempted to pull the fill plug on the transfer case but honestly...I have no clue what happened to this thing. The plug is so tight that my brand new milwaukee M12 3/8ths stubby impact with an authentic milwaukee 6A battery does nothing. The hex head of the plug itself was actually starting to deform, but was still stuck in there just as tight as ever.

I did not use threadlocker, I did not use any kind of crazy breaker bar to tighten it...I have no clue how it got so tight. However, nothing is leaking out of it. I've got an oil leak from my return line, I discovered, but the xfer case is sealed up tight. It's got lightweight shockproof in it as well, so I would 100% notice any kind of leak as I always look for what I call "alien blood" since it's that weird, but awesome, alien blue color.

I guess later when I feel like it, I'll jack the car up and get a better/bigger bar and see if I can get it off. I may just order another fill plug in the meantime, and outright replace it. I really...really..REALLY, do not want to snap the fill plug bolt off in this transfer case. However...I do have a spare 22 spline t-case in the parts talon.

So...I'm gonna let the car sit out in the weather and elements and park the edge in its spot under the car port for a little while. Maybe it'll cooperate with me after it thinks about what its done and try not to be such a drama queen. Or I'll build up more wherewithal and constitution and be ready to grab the bull by the horns.

@1cleangsx is right though, I've come this far with this damn thing, might as well just keep going. I'll look into what it takes to rebuild a rear diff, and slowly build up the parts to rebuild the driveshaft with OEM u-joints and either the JXB carrier bearings or brand new OEM ones so that after that, the driveline will be 0 mile brand new. Not gonna be in any hurry in the meantime, and I don't think I'm gonna drive the car the hour one way to work. I'll drive it around town on my off days where if the tcase locks up or something stupid brings the car to a sudden, violent halt that I'll be fine and won't miss a day of work.

 

[DreamChaser7]

If this car was a real person I would buy life insurance for it and then smother it.

I needed that today.

 

[CrackedDSM]

I needed that today.

I was hoping someone would get a kick out of that at least. Hope things get better for you, brother.

 

[DreamChaser7]

I was hoping someone would get a kick out of that at least. Hope things get better for you, brother.

The hits keep coming at the moment.

 

[CrackedDSM]

Bought another DSM today.

This one is guaranteed to never give me problems ever and I paid $8 for it!!

Look how clean and new it is.

 

[colbyc]

It'll somehow still end up on jack stands cool find though!

 

[Anfurnyy]

It'll somehow still end up on jack stands cool find though!

Could at least upgrade him to a lift

(5) Car Lifts Hot Wheels Jack Stand for 1/64 Scale Model Cars 2 Post Display | eBay

5 Car lifts are included with each order! These car lifts are perfect for displaying 2 of your 1/64 scale model cars on each jack. The post's long base makes it stable for cars to stay on.

www.ebay.com

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

Or....a canopy at least!