When you ruin your daily driver to the point you need to get another one...

[giant_mtb]

 

[Rupert]

So what's in the rocket box?

[Soup DeVille]

So what's in the rocket box?

Spare parts. Subie Parts, Miata, Parts, RX7 parts...

[68_427]

So what's in the rocket box?

Ringlands, head gaskets, and spare 5 speeds

[AutobahnSHO]

You can put the box inside the car......

[Cookie Monster]

Spare parts. Subie Parts, Miata, Parts, RX7 parts...

I would love that.

You can put the box inside the car......

So... you're saying to turn my 5 seat practical wagon into a 2 seater by putting the box inside?

[Cookie Monster]

Picked up a bumper from the junkyard for $30 yesterday.

Now my bumper isn't all broken and gross.

Before:



After:



The dumb car was fighting me the whole day yesterday, though. I ended up replacing the steering rack bushings because I thought that was the cause of my alignment problems (still don't know), but the new bushings were so much thicker and stiffer than the old shitty bushings that the steering rack didn't want to go back in after installing the bushings. I ended up stripping one of the chassis holes that holds the rack in. Luckily I went to a friends house today and we drilled and tapped a new hole and installed a bigger bolt so it's all good again.

I also might have put the steering rack back on the column a bit crooked because the wheel isn't straight anymore. I'll have to get it aligned first and if that doesn't fix it I'll have to pull and straighten the steering wheel instead. Sigh.

Oh, and for those of you shitting on the top box, it works great for holding oily pans:

[giant_mtb]

Better than getting oil all up in the cargo area.  I transported a rear diff for somebody in my trunk once and the stink of the little bit of diff fluid that seeped out never went away.

[Laconian]

Is this why you can't drive your Miata anymore? It's shameful what you did to your hardtop.

[Cookie Monster]

Damn. I've been caught.

[68_427]

Is this the front?

[Cookie Monster]

Decided to be dumb today and swapped the ball joints after work instead of going to the gym. That was a bitch of a job.

[Cookie Monster]

Bluetooth is in!



Unfortunately I lost 2 screws and a clip when trying to reassemble the stereo (fell into the depths of the dash) so I'm going to the junkyard again to grab those pieces.

Also bought a new rear seat back for the headrests. It doesn't match the rest of the car but at least people will stop bitching about the lack of headrests now.



Oh, and installed the Lamin-x on my corners!

[giant_mtb]

Decided to be dumb today and swapped the ball joints after work instead of going to the gym. That was a bitch of a job.

Probably a workout in itself. hah

[Cookie Monster]

Probably a workout in itself. hah

Lol yep. It was made worse by the fact that I was using a lighter deadblow hammer on the pickle fork to separate the ball joint. I got frustrated after about 15 minutes of swinging the deadblow hammer and used a sledgehammer instead and got the ball joint out after 3 swings.

[CaminoRacer]

[Cookie Monster]

Fork is cheaper.

[Cookie Monster]

So, car has been running perfectly up till now.

I go to start the car today, and it's misfiring and has a CEL on. I plug in my scangauge, and it's not showing any codes, but the CEL is on and car runs like shit. I checked the oil after letting the car sit for 5-10 min and it's just above the Low mark. When I checked it last (2 weeks ago?) it was at the Full mark.

Coolant also looks lower than I remember, but it's at the Full mark on the tank, there's no oil in it, and doesn't look like there's coolant in the oil, and there's no leaks on the driveway. I'm not sure if it's the headgasket as it's never overheated though so I'm not sure.

I need to figure out what the code is. I thought headgasket stuff would have different symptoms...

[shp4man]

So, car has been running perfectly up till now.

I go to start the car today, and it's misfiring and has a CEL on. I plug in my scangauge, and it's not showing any codes, but the CEL is on and car runs like shit. I checked the oil after letting the car sit for 5-10 min and it's just above the Low mark. When I checked it last (2 weeks ago?) it was at the Full mark.

Coolant also looks lower than I remember, but it's at the Full mark on the tank, there's no oil in it, and doesn't look like there's coolant in the oil, and there's no leaks on the driveway. I'm not sure if it's the headgasket as it's never overheated though so I'm not sure.

I need to figure out what the code is. I thought headgasket stuff would have different symptoms...

CEL light on- should be codes in the PCM memory. Does misfire clear up after it runs for a while?

[Cookie Monster]

CEL light on- should be codes in the PCM memory. Does misfire clear up after it runs for a while?

My scangauge did not read anything. I will blow the obd port out with compressed air and try with a different scanner. I just bought one on Amazon.

I didn't run the car or touch the gas, just turned it back off, so I don't know. That does have me wondering though, it could be shitty gas? I went to some random station on Saturday, filled up, drove the car a bit and then parked it. Last time I got shitty gas was when I was riding my CBR600, and that thing also would start and run like shit (if it started), but then cleared up after that tank.

[giant_mtb]

That happens these days?  I've never had shitty gas from a station. Or at least not shitty enough to cause an issue. lol

[Cookie Monster]

That happens these days?  I've never had shitty gas from a station. Or at least not shitty enough to cause an issue. lol

It's happened to me before, and given that there's a full tank of gas in it now from a station I've never been to before (same scenario as with my F4i), I feel like there might be a chance.

[Cookie Monster]

I just checked the oil last night - it was about halfway full, so it did go down from a bit below the full mark to halfway. The seller did say it leaked oil at the valve covers and that it needed to be filled up between oil changes, so I'm thinking it's just leaks, not really burning oil.

Either way, new VC gaskets, spark plugs and wires are on the way. Only problem is I'm not getting this stuff till next week...

I'm getting the scanner tomorrow. Hopefully it'll work and I can see what's wrong with the car. I'm thinking either bad spark plugs or bad injectors at this point.

[FoMoJo]

Coil pack?

[Cookie Monster]

Coil pack?

Maybe a dumb question, but if it was the coil pack that was bad, wouldn't the car just not turn on?

[FoMoJo]

Maybe a dumb question, but if it was the coil pack that was bad, wouldn't the car just not turn on?

I should ask, does it have coil packs for each cylinder?

[Cookie Monster]

I should ask, does it have coil packs for each cylinder?

Nah, it's the thing in the center the blue plug wires are connected to. It's one unit. I'm not sure if just one piece of that could fail, causing one cylinder to not fire, but that doesn't seem likely.

[shp4man]

A cars cooling system runs about 16psi after warm up. When you turn the car off when you get home , that 16 psi is still in the cooling system. Overnight, with a leaking head gasket, coolant contaminates the combustion chamber and shorts out the spark plug, causing a misfire. Eventually, the plug will clear, and the cylinder will start firing again.

[FoMoJo]

I just assumed individual coil packs.  Not sure how that works.

[Cookie Monster]

A cars cooling system runs about 16psi after warm up. When you turn the car off when you get home , that 16 psi is still in the cooling system. Overnight, with a leaking head gasket, coolant contaminates the combustion chamber and shorts out the spark plug, causing a misfire. Eventually, the plug will clear, and the cylinder will start firing again.

Why do you think it's a bad head gasket when the coolant level is still full and the coolant and oil aren't contaminated? (genuinely asking)

Is there any way to tell if the plug has shorted out? Will it just look too clean or something?