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What did you do to your car today?

2M views 19K replies 451 participants last post by  StarFighter1 
#1 ·
Lets keep this a continuing, never gonna die thread.

For the Toyota truck, I changed the plugs, plug wires, distributor cap, and changed the oil in it this morning. Also ran a can of seafoam through it before I changed the plugs, gotta love that huge cloud of smoke. Love how stupid easy the 22R-E is to work on. Runs a lot smoother now, and fixed my rough idle problem.

Tomorrow I'm going to wax and detail the Cadillac. Gonna be a long ass day.
 
#3,304 ·
It's definitely a 1960! My dad had a 1960 Fleetwood which I drove quite a bit. Really not to intimidating or ponderous especially compared top the 1956 Fleetwood he had before. As I have said at other times in the forum, I had a 1962 series 62 convertible. I don't think there was any significant difference in dimensions between the red Eldorado pictured here and my car. Again my convertible was not intimidating to drive, of course we were all used to driving relatively large cars in those days. I wouldn't want to try and park one of the sixties Cadillacs in many of the parking spaces we have today!
 
#3,306 ·
Again my convertible was not intimidating to drive, of course we were all used to driving relatively large cars in those days. I wouldn't want to try and park one of the sixties Cadillacs in many of the parking spaces we have today!
Maybe it's because I learned to drive in a '64 Impala, but Betty never feels all that big when I drive her, while when driving my sister's Silverado, I'm always cognizant of its size. Some parking lots/spaces can be a challenge with Betty, but nothing too hard to handle.

It's funny, but I instinctively adjust to the differences whenever I drive Betty, mostly the way the steering is geared so you have to twirl the wheel a lot more (a lot of people upgrade these cars to a 6.05 steering gearbox, but I'm used to mine, and I actually like twirling that big steering wheel). There's not a huge difference in size with either of my Cadillacs, but when I bought Betty, I was driving a '99 Honda Accord coupe, and that was a big difference. But I can go from one car to the other and automatically adjust to the differences.
 
#3,305 ·
One of the sales guys said they were barely able to squeeze it in the car access door, and had to back up, turn, pull up about 20 times to get it in. I think he's full of crap -- and he didn't even know what year it was... I think they just drove it in and built the bldg around it...
 
#3,308 ·
Just renewed my license plates. I don't think $86 annually is too bad.

Oregon is also very generous with collector cars. Not only do I get to use year-of-manufacture plates with a 64 validation sticker, I paid $36 once in 2003. So long as Betty isn't a daily driver, I never have to pay another registration fee.

For Oregon's 150th admission to the Union in 2009, Oregon issued a new version of the Pacific Wonderland plates that celebrated the state's centennial and were used from 1959 to 1964. But I have an original set:



Bought them from a collector in Portland. They weren't cheap, but they were pristine (still are).
 
#3,314 ·
since the front rotors won't be here till Friday and the pads in the back where pretty bad i went in for the rear brakes to be done today and will go back in on Friday or Monday for the fronts to be put on ones they get here

but took her for the rear brakes today
 
#3,318 ·
painted the rear rotors. Didn't paint the front because
1) I'm planning on the performance rotors which has black floating centers
2) the centers on the stock rotors are aluminum anyway.. so no corrision.

Couldn't heat the paint to 600 F as the oven only went to 550.. so I had to improvise while trying to reproduce the WOT 3-4 shift hesitation I experienced at MIR.

 
#3,319 ·
Wow wow wow... Why do you guys pay this much for a registration?
My Arizona registration cost me $105 a year! I can remember that back in Florida I registered my Regal for something between $100 and $200.

I checked online and saw I can order "STS 99" Hawaiian plate for my Cadillac for just $25! But I changed my mind... Why should I make the life easy for the guy that wants to issue me a citation/ticket?!
 
#3,320 ·
well mine was 50 more for the vanity plate and 25 for the ohio dog friendly
then there is the regular yearly fee that brings it up to 124.50

i know i think i read its like 225 the first time i register my car down in FL plus the registartion i think it works out to like 300-350 or something like that for the first time
really gona suck
 
#3,321 ·
Cruella is fixed! Ultimately, the problem was with the ECM. For all I know, it was the original one GM installed 21 years ago, so it had certainly outlived its expected service life. I'm just relieved they finally found the problem and cured it, and the throttle position sensor — which was thought to be the culprit previously — may have also been original (and could have been contributing to the problem), so that was probably worth replacing as well.

I asked my sister what the bill came to. Her mechanic told her he still working up the invoice, to which she replied, "that doesn't sound good." She's thinking it'll be around $1,000 when you add up the rear brake job the car was originally going in for, muffler, fuel injector, throttle position sensor and ECM, plus all the hours trying to locate the problem, although I'm sure Lucas is going to cut her a break on the diagnosis time. I sent an extra $100 with the check for my portion of my great-nephew's daycare bill and told her I could probably send some more after my classes resume in the spring term.
 
#3,323 ·
Got DTS back from dealer -- seats seem to have more air coming out of them. Still not as much as the one I rented for the last Chicago meet. Chad would be proud, they did BG fuel induction service and trans service. And something with the power steering pump -- probably just spit on it and said they serviced it.

Then took it to the warehouse and swapped it for the Riviera...

 
#3,327 ·
I'm sure you've said before, but refresh my memory again as to what the baby's mother and father are doing so that you're paying for his daycare?
My niece is currently working for Amazon, which I assume has a call center or something in Grand Forks. I think it's a seasonal job, but may turn into something longer term. My great-nephew's sperm donor (I refuse to call him Isaac's father) is a worthless loser who has paid a couple hundred dollars in child support — if that much — over the past year. He hasn't seen Isaac in months, and it wouldn't bother me if he was never seen or heard from again. Laura's boyfriend and the father of baby #2 (yes, I know; she was on birth control pills, but they didn't work — either time) is a stand-up guy who has a full-time job at an aircraft manufacturing plant. For all intents and purposes, he is Isaac's daddy, loved him before he was born, and we hope Tony can adopt Isaac one day.

Isaac's daycare ranges from $500 to $600 a month. My sister and I split the bill. We are both determined that Isaac will not suffer while my niece tries to get on her own feet and support herself. And Laura is like a daughter to me, and as I've told Susan, I will always have her back.

$1000 into a 21 year old, 300,000 mile Deville? With repsect, that's a little steep...
You have a point. However, we can't really afford to buy a different car, and even if we found something decent in the $2,000 to $2,500 range, it's still a crap shoot.

Cruella, at least, is a known quantity. Thanks to Quicken, I know everything that's been done to this car since 2005 and the past 70,000 miles. The electronics that were replaced were likely original or at least 10+ years old. I had never touched the rear brakes, nor the the brake hoses or alternator that were replaced last spring. This just happened to be a very vexing problem with likely a combination of problems that required more time to diagnose. The engine is solid otherwise, and the transmission was rebuilt at 216,000 miles. We just need the car to last another couple years.
 
#3,329 ·
I don't even know what I've put into the 10 year old 156K mile avant I have that I'll probally sell next year after a year of ownership, but the stuff I can think of off the top of my head are;

new engine(including new compressor, steering pump and altenator)
new suspension (struts/ CA's-- all 8 up front)
new interior
and too much misc stuff to mention


and I'm ready to do it all over again. Except maybe to something not quite so miserable to drive.
 
#3,334 ·
Puponomics...

Of course, who am I to talk...I've got over 10 grand in each RMW...I'd be lucky to get 4 out of either...
 
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