Saturday, March 7, 2009
Sleepless nights...
I was sleeping so well... then work called... now I'm awake, and I can't sleep. So I'm lying on the couch. I'm watching Under Siege on HBO. I love Steven Seagal movies. This movie is great.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Cold, Sick, and Rainy
I've been sick all weekend. Just snotty and feeling generally crappy. It's pretty awesome. It's also raining a lot here. It's extremely cold, and it's supposed to snow tomorrow. The other awesome thing is that my windshield wipers stopped working last night. I can hear the motor go. Woot. Hopefully I can get to work in the morning. Jenny's supposed to fly out to Tucson tomorrow evening as well. Hopefully the weather isn't too bad for that.
Not much more happening. I've been trying to install Xubuntu on an old AMD K6-2 500Mhz PC. It was installed, and then when I was doing the security updates, it froze. Then when I rebooted, it wasn't able to mount the kernel. Not sure what's up with that. Reinstalling now.....
Not much more happening. I've been trying to install Xubuntu on an old AMD K6-2 500Mhz PC. It was installed, and then when I was doing the security updates, it froze. Then when I rebooted, it wasn't able to mount the kernel. Not sure what's up with that. Reinstalling now.....
Monday, February 16, 2009
Coolant Leak
Alrighty, I found the cause of the coolant leak. I had the car up on the ramps, looking everywhere underneath, and I figured I'd have to take it somewhere. I couldn't figure out where it was coming from.
Then...! I had the ingenious idea to actually start the car. Sure enough, I found the drip, up on top, from the hose coming out of the throttle body down behind the engine.
Can you see it back there? It's on top of the engine, but underneath the hood cover where the windshield wipers are. To get to it is going to be fun, but nothing I haven't done before. I talked to Aaron for a while about it, and we determined that it was one we'd replaced when we installed the supercharger.
Here's a better look once I got the hood cover thing off.
And once I could tell that it was the hose actually, and not like a clamp or something not functioning, off I went to Advance to get something comparable to replace it.
Aaron had found the supercharger install book that I'd emailed him in 07 in his Gmail archive. I love Gmail. This let me know that it was a 5/16" hose. I bought 2 feet of it, just because I wanted to be sure I had enough. It was only $1.39/ft. I couldn't complain, so I wasn't THAT wasteful.
I noticed on the way home coolant was coming up and spraying on the windshield a little. Here's what I was greeted with when I opened the hood.
After releasing the pressure it stopped spraying. I wanted pictures though. After that, it was pretty easy to just replace the hose & clamp it on. Nothing to it.
Everything appears to be working great. Guess we'll find out soon enough.
Last problem is that whirring noise. I only hear it above 20MPH and even with the engine shut off (yeah, I shut off the engine driving down the road). Not sure what that is yet... maybe brakes? I just did the rears... perhaps I screwed something up? Or perhaps it's the fronts? It does sound like it's the front.
Then...! I had the ingenious idea to actually start the car. Sure enough, I found the drip, up on top, from the hose coming out of the throttle body down behind the engine.
Can you see it back there? It's on top of the engine, but underneath the hood cover where the windshield wipers are. To get to it is going to be fun, but nothing I haven't done before. I talked to Aaron for a while about it, and we determined that it was one we'd replaced when we installed the supercharger.
Here's a better look once I got the hood cover thing off.
And once I could tell that it was the hose actually, and not like a clamp or something not functioning, off I went to Advance to get something comparable to replace it.
Aaron had found the supercharger install book that I'd emailed him in 07 in his Gmail archive. I love Gmail. This let me know that it was a 5/16" hose. I bought 2 feet of it, just because I wanted to be sure I had enough. It was only $1.39/ft. I couldn't complain, so I wasn't THAT wasteful.
I noticed on the way home coolant was coming up and spraying on the windshield a little. Here's what I was greeted with when I opened the hood.
After releasing the pressure it stopped spraying. I wanted pictures though. After that, it was pretty easy to just replace the hose & clamp it on. Nothing to it.
Everything appears to be working great. Guess we'll find out soon enough.
Last problem is that whirring noise. I only hear it above 20MPH and even with the engine shut off (yeah, I shut off the engine driving down the road). Not sure what that is yet... maybe brakes? I just did the rears... perhaps I screwed something up? Or perhaps it's the fronts? It does sound like it's the front.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Car Update
Alrighty, the ignition coil did the trick. Hooray!
Two more problems to tackle.. these weren't quite as dire though... I have a coolant leak somewhere, and I'm hearing a whining sound while driving.
I'll try to figure out the leak tomorrow. I noticed today that it's somehow spraying it on top of the engine. I couldn't find where it was leaking from though. Fun, fun... good thing I have some extra!
Two more problems to tackle.. these weren't quite as dire though... I have a coolant leak somewhere, and I'm hearing a whining sound while driving.
I'll try to figure out the leak tomorrow. I noticed today that it's somehow spraying it on top of the engine. I couldn't find where it was leaking from though. Fun, fun... good thing I have some extra!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Car Problems
So I'm driving to the gym the other day, and taking off from a stop, my car kind of hesitates, sort of a sputter or something, then the check engine light begins flashing. It doesn't actually die, but it didn't act normal, that's for sure. All the way to the gym and all the way home, it just has no power.
I get home, begin doing some Google searches, and apparently this meets the exact symptoms of either: bad spark plugs, bad spark plug wires, bad ignition coil, or bad fuel filter. I stopped at AutoZone and had them diagnose the CEL. Misfire in cylinder 3. So I bought some new spark plugs. They were last changed when I put my supercharger on about a year and a half ago, and since I knew how to do it, it shouldn't be too bad.
I changed those this morning. I began driving, and it seemed like it was okay, and then, nope, loss of power by the time I got to the end of the neighborhood, and the CEL flashes again.
Blah. Not the spark plugs. I drove on to Advance and bought a Fuel Filter. I've never changed this, nor have I had it changed, and I'm headed towards 141,000 miles. According to a DIY I found on VWVortex it's not very difficult.
And it wasn't. The most challenging part, as it often is with my car, is the lack of working space. So the fuel filter has been changed, and I tried driving again.
Nope, same deal. I had a hunch it was the ignition coil when I first started reading. It seemed to be the most common cause on many different forum posts I read. The fuel filter and spark plugs were really maintenance that would've needed done sometime soon anyway, so I don't feel like I wasted my money. The ignition coil is about $140 from Advance, so that's hopefully that fixes it. I'll have to order it from Advance, so I'm going to try NAPA first. Maybe I'll blog before another month is over.
Oh, subject change! We got a kitten from the neighbor last night. His name is Clyde, and he's the friendliest kitten I've ever seen. All he does is follow you around and purr. Pictures coming soon....
I get home, begin doing some Google searches, and apparently this meets the exact symptoms of either: bad spark plugs, bad spark plug wires, bad ignition coil, or bad fuel filter. I stopped at AutoZone and had them diagnose the CEL. Misfire in cylinder 3. So I bought some new spark plugs. They were last changed when I put my supercharger on about a year and a half ago, and since I knew how to do it, it shouldn't be too bad.
I changed those this morning. I began driving, and it seemed like it was okay, and then, nope, loss of power by the time I got to the end of the neighborhood, and the CEL flashes again.
Blah. Not the spark plugs. I drove on to Advance and bought a Fuel Filter. I've never changed this, nor have I had it changed, and I'm headed towards 141,000 miles. According to a DIY I found on VWVortex it's not very difficult.
And it wasn't. The most challenging part, as it often is with my car, is the lack of working space. So the fuel filter has been changed, and I tried driving again.
Nope, same deal. I had a hunch it was the ignition coil when I first started reading. It seemed to be the most common cause on many different forum posts I read. The fuel filter and spark plugs were really maintenance that would've needed done sometime soon anyway, so I don't feel like I wasted my money. The ignition coil is about $140 from Advance, so that's hopefully that fixes it. I'll have to order it from Advance, so I'm going to try NAPA first. Maybe I'll blog before another month is over.
Oh, subject change! We got a kitten from the neighbor last night. His name is Clyde, and he's the friendliest kitten I've ever seen. All he does is follow you around and purr. Pictures coming soon....
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