Car Enthusiast Thread

GohanX

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Fuck the low riders, my car was lowered by the previous owner to what most consider the "perfect" height and I'm scraping like a motherfucker anytime there's a dip in the road. I have to watch out when I'm doing some quick transitions if the road isn't perfectly flat since I have to worry about my suspension bottoming out. It sucks and I really need to find the time to put the stock springs on it. I'd say your car height looks perfect as is, if you want to do some suspension upgrades look into some firmer shocks, but don't overdo it or you'll lose some of the character of driving a BMW. Maybe some good Bilsteins.

I took a week off and finally updated my suspension. Stock springs, Bilstein shock/struts. I don't have it 100% completed yet (there are a few parts I need to order) but maaaan this is a world of difference. Looks like the stuff that was in there wasn't old and worn out at all, but soft lowering springs with stock KYB shocks is not a great combination. The car is smooth as butter now, firm but compliant. Feels better than the wife's new car and I no longer have to fear speedbumps.

Also, if you use an impact wrench to tighten things instead of just loosening them, FUCK YOU. I hate you and if I find you I will disembowel you. The work shouldn't have been difficult, none of the bolts were rusted or anything but some of the bolts were so tight my impact wrench couldn't even think about budging them.
 
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I think KYB went from close to bilstein quality at one point to auto zone quality, wasnt happy with my last few sets after a few thousand miles.
 
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GohanX

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KYB GR2s (which my stock shocks are based off of) are a fine regular, but not exceptional shock. But they were a really poor match with the lowering springs that were on the car. Most of these noobs lowering their cars don't understand that when you lower a car you need to make it stiffer, not looser.

Now that you mention it, back when I was in the RX7 car club way back when the KYB adjustables were the rage at the time and half the guys had them on their cars. The cars handled fine, but they were really harsh to me. My Tokico adjustables had a lot more actual dampening and felt better for not much more cash. Fast forward to today though and I don't think I ever want to use anything but Bilsteins again, I love the way my car feels now.
 

mainman

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Does anyone have any creative solutions of where to park a second car if you live in a apt. Don't really want to park on the street and my family members I don't trust. People move in and out of my apt too frequently for me to make a deal to use their space.


So the transmission finally failed on my 2014 Pathfinder with 59k miles on it...while I was merging onto the freeway nonetheless. Thankfully got home safely.

Of course I was beyond the 5 years covered by warranty (bought it in late 2013). Thankfully because it’s such a shit car Nissan extended the warranty to 84k miles so the transmission got replaced for free....otherwise would have been more than $5k to fix.

Fuck Nissan

How does a transmission with only 60k miles fail
 
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max 330 mega

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Does anyone have any creative solutions of where to park a second car if you live in a apt. Don't really want to park on the street and my family members I don't trust. People move in and out of my apt too frequently for me to make a deal to use their space.




How does a transmission with only 60k miles fail
So I have a real vehicle ( pre 90s, pre piece of shit) and a daily driver (2004 Nissan sentra, pre Renault collaboration garbage.) Most times the best option is renting a spot in a nearby garage. This never worked for me,I refuse to drive one vehicle across town to park it and drive the other. So I literally sold my last classic for a classic with stronger bumpers. Swapped 85 Monte Carlo to 84 square body truck. I chain the steering wheel, and please back into it. I don't get a dent and the other car is fuckkked.
 

GohanX

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Does anyone have any creative solutions of where to park a second car if you live in a apt. Don't really want to park on the street and my family members I don't trust. People move in and out of my apt too frequently for me to make a deal to use their space.

Around here the self storage places will let you store cars there for a monthly fee. You may look into that, although it may not be worth the expense.



How does a transmission with only 60k miles fail

Nissan builds their own transmissions under their Jatco subsidiary, and Jatco transmissions have long been known to be garbage.
 

SNKJorge

Collection Gallery Keeper, CD Price Guide Analyst,
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Since you left News & Rumors is just any news, not necessarily Neo Geo related. It was even dropped from the subforum's description. Dark times.

I see that. Lots of cleaning to do just don’t have the time anymore though but I do lurk a little every now and then.
 

SNKJorge

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The Macan is nice. There is def a quality jump from BMW to Porsche.

Everyone has a perception that Porsche is “better” but in reality their two doors are second to none, however SUV’s BMW is far superior. Macan GTS previous and newer generations are great cars but BMW’s technology, handling, literally everything is superior. Especially the real M, no competition. Porsche has a little more “cache” I guess but that’s about it. Land Rover :keke:
 
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Lukejaywalker23

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Everyone has a perception that Porsche is “better” but in reality their two doors are second to none, however SUV’s BMW is far superior. Macan GTS previous and newer generations are great cars but BMW’s technology, handling, literally everything is superior. Especially the real M, no competition. Porsche has a little more “cache” I guess but that’s about it. Land Rover :keke:

I can only speak on my experience and I've had nothing but problems with BMWs since the early 2000s. I love BMW and will give them a shot once every 5 years or so but always regret. The Macan feels so much more "premium" than the X5 in my opinion. We never had a problem with our Macan and while I haven't owned a newer X5 I seem to always get the gas guzzling thing every time I get a loaner and that's quite often.Every BMW I've even owned stayed in the service center. Also performance on an SUV is pointless in my opinion. Not sure witch one has the better specs cuz it doesn't really matter to me. I look at them both as girl cars

I feel like over the last few years BMW has lost their way and as of right now I don't think I'll go back anytime soon.
 
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lithy

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Time to crowd source some repair advice.

I've been driving my wife's car around for a little while because it needed some things to pass state inspection and there were some additional things I wanted to do, so I'm trying to pick away at it. 2006 Suzuki Aerio SX with just a hair under 100k miles now.

I replaced the entire driver's side lower control arm because it is a fucking integrated unit for the ball joint, ugh. So, that was all good (after getting a replacement for the bolt I had to drill out), but after doing that I'm getting a thumping/knocking noise (suspension-ish sound not engine knock) especially when turning right under acceleration load. thump-thump-thump, it gets quicker with increasing RPMs. It sounds like an unbalanced tire but definitely it isn't that. It still sounds the same after doing all 4 motor mounts too (which I was doing anyway that wasn't part of my diagnosis).

Only guesses I have so far are maybe I somehow got the CV joint pulled out a little bit while doing the LCA, but it looks to be seated properly. I'm going to pull the tire tomorrow and double check that I didn't knock something askew on the brake calipter. Anything else I should check?

The car is just generally a rattling tin can, so I'm going to try to do a lot of suspension rubber on all four corners in the next couple months and see if I can stop some of the vibration.
 

GohanX

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Since the LCA is the last thing you touched before the noise that's the first thing I'd check. One thing that can often go wrong is tightening the bolt while it is in the air, suspension bolts should be tightened with the car on the ground under the full weight. Also it's important that it is torqued to proper spec and not just "good enough." the LCAs on my car get an almost unbelievable amount of torque to tighten them properly.

That said, a "thump thump thump" that gets louder as the car moves faster sounds like a wheel bearing to me, but it would be a huge coincidence for a wheel bearing to go out when the last thing you were messing with was a control arm. I don't think it's a CV joint since those will usually make clicking and popping sounds when they go out.
 

lithy

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Since the LCA is the last thing you touched before the noise that's the first thing I'd check. One thing that can often go wrong is tightening the bolt while it is in the air, suspension bolts should be tightened with the car on the ground under the full weight. Also it's important that it is torqued to proper spec and not just "good enough." the LCAs on my car get an almost unbelievable amount of torque to tighten them properly.

That said, a "thump thump thump" that gets louder as the car moves faster sounds like a wheel bearing to me, but it would be a huge coincidence for a wheel bearing to go out when the last thing you were messing with was a control arm. I don't think it's a CV joint since those will usually make clicking and popping sounds when they go out.

I'll double check the LCA bolts, I didn't know about tightening while under load and definitely did not so I'll take a look there. One problem I had is that to tighten the one bolt it passes through a subframe to a welded nut on the other side, but the nut had broken free so had to be held with the subframe loosened and dropped with a wrench snuck in there while tightening the bolt. Now that it is tightened to the frame though I can probably make sure it is torqued down.

I saw some people describe a similar noise as a wheel bearing. Agreed that it would be very coincidental and it doesn't have any sort of whine/scratching like I have had with bad wheel bearings on other cars.

Some poking around online seemed to suggest that either a failing or loose inner CV joint could make a noise like I'm hearing, while a failing outer CV joint is usually the clicking/popping kind of noise. Combined with the fact that it is possible to stretch the CV joint while doing the LCA, I thought maybe I had pulled it out a little bit, but the boots look right and while it isn't 100% flush to the transmission, it is very close and looks right.

I guess if I see nothing that needs attention on the LCA, I can pull the CV joint from the knuckle and give it a few rubber mallet whacks to make sure it is fully seated, but I really don't want to have to do that.
 

smokehouse

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Well...here's one I didn't think I'd be posting to again this year.

I'm pretty sure I told you all that last April, my 2017 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel blew the motor at 27,xxx miles. Thankfully, it was fully covered and despite being a pain, about 6 or so months later, I got a new engine.

FF to about a month ago and once again, the replacement long block started giving me that same "marbles in a trash can" sound like it did before. This time around 32,xxx miles.

I decided it was enough.

I began shopping around and yesterday I got a 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited with their current "80th anniversary" package...which is nicely loaded. I didn't want to pay for the 5.7l V8 or its rather shitty MPG, so I got the V6, which has infinitely more pep than the diesel ram ever did.

With my commuting more and using my truck as a "truck" less and less, I decided that a new truck with a chugging V8 wasn't the smartest move. After having a truck since Feb of 2014, I guess that time has passed. Funny enough, now my wife and I both have Jeeps...with hers being a 2020 Cherokee Limited.
 

lithy

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You had two motors get you a combined 60k miles and still stayed in the same corporate family for the new car? That's commitment.
 

StevenK

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Well...here's one I didn't think I'd be posting to again this year.

I'm pretty sure I told you all that last April, my 2017 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel blew the motor at 27,xxx miles. Thankfully, it was fully covered and despite being a pain, about 6 or so months later, I got a new engine.

FF to about a month ago and once again, the replacement long block started giving me that same "marbles in a trash can" sound like it did before. This time around 32,xxx miles.

I decided it was enough.

I began shopping around and yesterday I got a 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited with their current "80th anniversary" package...which is nicely loaded. I didn't want to pay for the 5.7l V8 or its rather shitty MPG, so I got the V6, which has infinitely more pep than the diesel ram ever did.

With my commuting more and using my truck as a "truck" less and less, I decided that a new truck with a chugging V8 wasn't the smartest move. After having a truck since Feb of 2014, I guess that time has passed. Funny enough, now my wife and I both have Jeeps...with hers being a 2020 Cherokee Limited.

Is there an allegiance thing going on with the repeat American car purchases? Would you consider an import?
 

bubba966

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You had two motors get you a combined 60k miles and still stayed in the same corporate family for the new car? That's commitment.

Srsly... Mopar peeps don't seem to buy anything else though. I guess if that's what ya want, that's what ya get

Coworker had a troublesome Jeep (Compass I think) that was never quite ok and would need significant repairs on the regular. It died last week so I suggested MAYBE look at something else. Lolnope, another Jeep it was.
 

smokehouse

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You had two motors get you a combined 60k miles and still stayed in the same corporate family for the new car? That's commitment.

The older 3.0L "Eco diesel" is a MV motori long-block. I don't fully blame FCA for the complete failure that is that shitpile of an engine. The 5.7 V8 isn't even close to being that problem prone. I had a 2014 Ram 1500 with the 6-speed and 5.7 and it never caused me any issues. I bought the Eco Diesel for MPG...which is did get netting 10 mpg more than the V8...when it wasn't exploding.

The V6 engines I trust completely and the Grand Cherokee and Cherokee have been around for years with nearly all kinks worked out of them. The V6 in our Town and Country was a flawless engine.

I needed out of a truck with the driving that i now do.
 

Syn

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Gathering parts for a turbo build, hopefully it gets done this year.

No recommendations as I've only bought local.

What are you looking to get?
 

GohanX

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Bump for this thread. What have ya’ll been up to?

Irony!

KYB GR2s (which my stock shocks are based off of) are a fine regular, but not exceptional shock.

I'm about to put GR2s on my Miata, lol. My old Tokicos are worn out, and I'm just gonna throw the cheapest decent shocks on it for now.

I spent last year fixing up my Mazdaspeed 6 and am in the process of tuning it now. These past few weeks I've shifted my attention to the Miata. I got it running at the beginning of last year, now I'm trying to catch up on little things. On the list (with a few items done:) refresh the suspension, rebuild the shifter, install new leather shift boot, put in a new steering wheel and shift knob, put in a new coolant reservoir tank, recover the seats, change the transmission and diff fluids, install the missing rear subframe brace, adjust the stupid door that hangs just a little too low, etc etc etc. Nothing major, just piles of little things to make the driving experience better.

My ultimate goal is to start autocrossing it again next year. That's why you don't see any real upgrades in that list. I'm just going for fun and not trying to really compete but I would rather stay in the stockish classes.
 
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@ syn - cool man I dont think weve ever talked cars, curious as hell to what you have going on.

and im not looking for anything, I just put a down on a car I need to ship, I’ll post pics in a few weeks when it gets here.

@ gohanx - nice to do list on the miata sir, autocross sounds fun, I will be looking for a beater e36 coupe IS or M later this year to turn into a stripped down forest road toy, maybe I should look at what local events at tracks there are by me. Never really thought about taking it off the back roads.
 

GohanX

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If you've got a real track near you see if they do parade laps sometime. I'm not too far from VIR, and at least once a year they do parade laps for charity for like $50. It's not a racing event, but you get to drive your car on the track, any car as long as it's not in bad shape. You can't pass, but when I did it they arranged the cars by speed with fastest in front so unless you're a pro racer you're going close to as fast as you can possibly go. It's a lot of fun. Except that they put the Mustangs in front of my group of RX-7s and Miatas, and the Stangs got black flagged for going to slow since the track only had one straight.

It's a great trial to see if you'd like it and might want to do something more like an HPDE event or something. HPDEs are too rich for my blood, and autocrossing is cheap. I haven't done it in something like 15 years though.
 
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