Neverending maintenance

[housegsx]

You know, usually I think my car is pretty damn solid and doesn't need much. And some days my car likes to remind me who's boss...

I've been wanting to change out my Pennsoil transmission oil for Redline. No bid deal, this is only an hour job. I put the car up on my jackstands and start draining the fluid as I do my typical once over inspection of everything else. Hmm... slight drip of oil between the transmission and transfer case. I wipe it with my finger, it's red, Shockproof. Damnit! The transfer cases seal must be bad. So I let the transmission drain and get cleaned up. I order new transfer case seals and a bottle of shockproof.

Next day, I get my seal and fluid. Time to pull the transfer case. No big deal, right? 5 bolts and it pops off. Well I forgot I have to drop the downpipe to remove it. This is easy, but with an aftermarket o2 housing with no studs it becomes very tedious. Getting it off is no problem, but it usually takes a damn hour to put the downpipe back on. Oh how I dream of V-band exhaust.

Anyways, after the exhaust and transfer case are off I happen to look over and see a ton of grease and oil splattered around. Great! The passenger side inboard CV boot is split. Yay! What a fun job that can be. At least it looks like I caught it not too long after it happened so the axle should be good. I just ordered a new boot and started tearing down the axle.

At this point I was getting aggravated. Oh well, nothing new here. Maintenance always turns into a shitstorm of things that need/should be done.

After I got the axle back together with the new boot I installed it then replaced those seals on the transfer case. I bolted it back on and wrestled with the downpipe for a while until I got it all back together. I put the new fluids in.

I've been to a few autocross' lately so I decided now is a good time to rotate the tires since the car is on stands. Ugh...Wth!! Got a nail in the front passenger side tire. Damn, this always happens after I get fresh tires. Whatever, I'll just pop a plug in and be done with it. I go to mount the passenger rear tire and hand tighten the lugs. I used the tire to pull myself up to move to the next wheel when I feel a slight rock in that rear tire. Yup, Bad wheel bearing..

I finished mounting the other wheels checking all my wheel bearings. Luckily it's just 1 bad one today. I took the car for a spin and everything else is good. No leaks and the new fluid feels fine when shifting. Now I have a wheel bearing on the way. It should be here by tomorrow.

Anyone else love when a project snowballs into a bunch of issues?

 

[airmail96]

Fun stuff right there.

 

[bluegs03]

Hey thats awesome that you caught all of those issues!

 

[mitsu-luver]

ya dont u just love it, my car leaked oil, overheated, died at stop lights
and the clutch sliped alot, turbo was worn out, so i went to change to the clutch and ended up yanking the motor and putting a mahle eagle
duo and redoing the whole car haha

 

[90laserRSfwd]

Just think of all the stories we (dsm owners) will have to tell our grand kids!

 

[91tizzy]

wow for sure man just look at it like bluegs said....at least you caught the issues before they got much more pronounced! ha....but that is ironic that you mentioned this today as I just now got inside from replacing my harmonic balancer and I just on a whim decided to check the timing....yup a tooth off on the intake cam as I suspected since the previous owner did the job before I got it and the ignition timing was fully advanced.....no biggie Ill fix it when I have money to do another timing job and install a bs removal kit. well as I was reinstalling my upper timing cover I notice a tiny little slit in my timing belt on the inner edge.....looks like I will have to find a way to do this earlier than expected...blah I know how ya feel

 

[housegsx]

It was definitely nice to catch things before anything got worse. The wheel bearing surprised me. It's one I've replaced before already. Oh well, that means it should be easy to get off.

Tizzy, better get that timing belt job done asap. Make sure you get an OEM stubby shaft with the kit you buy.

 

[91tizzy]

yeah Im on it man....thing that sucks is funds are low and it has to be driven like that for a minute....im just prayin that it holds...God am I prayin. Guess what? I installed my OTHER brand new OEM straight from the dealer crank pulley and the muther####er is still is wobblin!!! AHH here come my dsm frustrations. And on top of that the shift box I just installed today works great but its rough on the driveline (well there is a toggle that is supposed to set it back to stock) guess what? the toggle aint workin and is throwin it into limp mode....I hope Tim will work with me on this cause I like the shift box but its my daily and I know it will go through cv's shifting the way it is 24/7.......oh well guess there aint nothin to do but keep fightin the good fight!.........................oh but she is running fantabulous otherwise

 

[crimsondragon]

Everytime I get under the car, I wonder what I'd find. So far I marked off leaky radiator hose, leaky tranny pan, and leaky oil return line. I have yet to fix any of them since they are not too much a concern. the CV boots though, they look fine thank god. I also have to fix that creaking in the driver side front brakes. Maybe readjust the e-brake cable a little. Might need new pads as well. Oh and I'm about 5k miles overdue for an oil change. Still waiting till the turbo swap to do it. Hm, maybe I'll do the radiator hose while I'm at it as well. Time to look for aftermarket silicone hoses.

 

[cavillac]

I've owned my car for under a year and am finally finishing up on my maintnance, I've replaced both front CV shafts due to torn inner boots,clutch, Transfer case rear seal, Rear main, Timing belt, balance belt, Both crank/cam sensors, all timing side seals, v/c gasket, oil pan gasket, fuel filter, radiator, thermostat, tires, all excessory drivebelts, waterpump, timing pulleys etc etc.. can I start doing some go fast mods now PLEASE!!

 

[BoyRacerBlu]

yeah I know how you guys feel, I so far have owned my talon since mid july and have pulled my motor 4 time to install a new stage 1 clutch, gaskets, poly mounts, and new cv's, I still have to replace the bushings in my shifter cables ( brass is coming in the mail) I still have to find a better solution for my leaky radiator other than bars leak, new metal to weld onto my decaying strut and what was supposed to be a 20 min o2 sensor change (### my old one died-took my an 8th of a tank of gas to go 15 mi ...+_+...) has now successfully turned into a week ### the guy who had the car before me stripped the threads out of the stock cast o2 housing, so I tried to do a heliocoil kit that I borrowed from a machine shop and snapped their tap off in my housing, only to find out from a friend that he has an extra TUBULAR housing lying around, I just pulled my turbo off today and gave the machine shop another $80 to buy a new kit....the legacy continues.....

 

[->PrOjEcTGS<-]

My luck I would tell my wife that it's just a quick oil change.... Oh, honey I need this, and this, and this, oh yea and this... She says, "Go figure."

Preventative maintenance is the best maintenance!!

 

[housegsx]

^At least everyone else feels my pain, !

 

[snowborder714]

Eric (turbosax2) and I's projects always snowball. Mine tend to be for maintenance or fixing the previous owner's ghetto-rigged crap. His are for maintenance and cleaning. Oh, how it'd be nice to start with a stock car...

At least you've got everything taken care of. I'd much rather hear about people finding stuff than having it break and finding out the hard way.

 

[housegsx]

"I'd much rather hear about people finding stuff than having it break and finding out the hard way."

True.

I'm working on the wheel bearing now. Trying to press the splined part out of the hub/bearing. It came out fine, but half the bearing is stuck on the shaft and there is no way to press it off. I'm going to try prying some more. Maybe a slider hammer would work but I don't have one. I don't get why it's another $200 to get the complete hub assembly. It would save the headache but not worth the price.

 

[rx7ttlm]

Well finding the seal on the trans probably wasn't something that would have been catostrophic right off. But it doesn't take long for the cv's to explode when they aren't lubed. given the design of the bearing assy. I am going to have to design a jig to press that crap. I looked at my rear and I knew I couldn't press it in and out preloading everything properly and only pressing on the inner race. maybe with a lil machining of the housings I could make them easier to press, its hard to explain.

These cars can really be a pain in the ass. But when they are running at 100% at 25+ psi of boost its soooo worth it