my CG lock's arriving today.


anyway, about a month ago i bought this Deltran battery tender for my
hobby cars. just a follow up:

was playing the stereo in my G pretty loud late last night in the garage
for about an 1hr while the battery tender was plugged in. (doing some
EQ tuning)....anyway, car was fully recharged by the time i looked at
the charger this am. it's only a 0.75A charger, but not bad!

i like how it automatically detects drain and starts charging and floats all
on its own...and you can monitor this status by its LED.

if you have a car that's going to be parked for over a week, definitely
recommend it.

Amazon.com: Deltran Battery Tender Junior 12-Volt .75 Amp Battery Charger: Automotive

 

tried the CG-Lock yesterday...just installed it, haven't had a chance to
go test drive it yet.


1. CRAFTSMANSHIP - not the best cosmetics. looks about as
bad as those airplane seatbelt buckles you see on commercial jets. lol
but it could be a good thing for you weekend track people where your
interior is more race car oriented. my G is running aftermarket bits
here and there but is a weekend touring car and not a track car.

2. FITMENT - no problem. was a quick install, took no more than 5min.
Instructions are good.

3. FUNCTION - works as advertised; actually i was surprised how loose
my factory seatbelt was around the lap until i tugged gently on the
shoulder belt while the CG-Lock was on the buckle to tighten.

it tightens down your lap belt while keeping the shoulder belt normal...so
you can still reach forward to your stereo or watever.

will find out tomorrow during my drive to see how it goes. so far
so good!

 

never mind

 

tried out the CG-Lock during my drive this am on my G35C. i tried it first
with quite a bit of tension and it was too uncomfortable for street , so
i loosened it a tad to just snug. (there's a lever on the side of the CG-L
and you just push it down to adjust the tension).

wow, i think i like this thing. it was snug at all times and i can take
some of the tighter turns without having to think about supporting my
body on the deadpedal. the trick is to set it snug, but not too snug
for street.

im going to get one for my FitS.

order from my buddy's shop: CG Lock Seat Belt Locking Device

 

i guess the one 'issue' that one *might* have with these CG-locks is
that it puts additional weight on the buckle so depending on how hard
the belt retactor is, it could potentially not retract all the way if you
just unbuckle and let go of it after you're done driving.

might want to support the buckle with CG-lock while the retractor
works itself for maybe 2-3 seconds.

if you plan to take your car in for service probably best to remove it
(only takes like one min to remove) so that the porters dont accidentally
drop the buckle after unbuckling and potentially hit the doorsill.

 

yah, thought FF died permanently... glad to see it's back online.


Yesterday i got my SPARCO harness pad. here's a quick review:
I tried the pad on my G35C's seatbelt. wooo~ feels good!
vroom vroooom! looks great too.

then i step out of the car and noticed my hand... it's like dark
brown/black like after reading a newspaper.

the dye in the pad got on my hand and my white undershirt. oh crap.



so i washed one just for the hell of it under warm water and used
Griot's MF Cleaner. man the first few rinses were dirty. after about
8-9 rinses the water was finally clear. i hung dried it. The memory
foam inside seems ok. The synthetic suede-like material is also ok
from the washing. The color did not fade or the fabric shrink, so im
good.

so, just make sure you wash them by hand BEFORE USE!

 

it's about 80F this morning and very humid... yuk.

my FitS didn't like it either during the drive. ECU seems to have a hard
time adjusting to this condition while the a/c is on. my small throttle
inputs felt random at times until i turned the a/c off.

car does fine on hot days with drier air with a/c on.


i then pulled out my G in the same condition. so damn smooth a/c on
or off so i know it wasn't my driving inputs.

btw, that SPARCO harness pad did real well! unlike the regular
pads, this memory foam adjusts to your shoulder's contour so it's a nice
fit. looks great too.

 

just a heads up for all you looking at the 09's. they apparetly run
different suspension than the 07-08's so if you're planning to sell your
07-08's for the 09's and run the same sus, it won't work.
sell those aftermarket suspension bits if you're moving on.


check out the posts in the suspension forum.


me? naw, im going to keep motoring my 08. atleast another
couple of years.

 

I would think you would trade up to a 2009 Ken.
Im also thinking im going to keep my 2007 but man is the 09 tempting.
BTW i love following this thread, keep the updates coming

 

Agreed! I always wonder if you think you're just talking to yourself. I'm here and reading

 

naw, i dont foresee myself trading up to the 2009. they look nice
and all, but this is my dd and im happy with my 08 for wat it can
deliver. i might change out the suspenion next summer if there
are offerings by someone running soft spring rate c/o's with
adjustable dampers.

but before that, i think im going to get some c/o's for my cooper-s
or at minimum, the Koni yellow's to run with my lowering springs.
the stock dampers are starting to feel a tad soft these days (at 27.5K).


thanks, i just keep the thread up to date with wat im doing in the
garage and car stuff. thanks for reading, more to come.

 

no, it's more of a diary. but it also keeps a log of what
im doing so i can always refer back later on if someone asks wat i
did on my car.

thanks for reading too.

 

so kinda off topic, but i was motoring my cooper-s this am and my
glove box popped open... so i shut it. and a few minutes later, i noticed
that it opened again... so shut it. then a few more min later, it opened
again.. wtf is wrong with these german engineered british built
cars? it sometimes opened over rough terrain from the getgo, but
it didn't open like this every few min until today.

so i put my japanese ass to work, pulled the whole glove box out and
adjusted, put it back together tonight. the box was installed incorrectly
from the beginning, looking at the wear of the striker's tip vs where
the latch was. and wat's so damn hillarious is that MINI sent out a TSB
for this problem back in 2004... some times it worked, some times it
didn't work and they ordered an entirely new glove box assembly.

i look at the TSB and it was just a bandaid fix to forcefully deform
the glove box housing using 2 washers to push the latch outward so
that the striker can reach. wtf.

for me, it only took two 7mm nuts to loosen and adjust the latch...
but no, they took their lazy arse way or gave a customer an entirely
new glove box just out of lazyness. that's probably why BMW/MINI's
cost so much...due to inefficiency, not quality.

here's where the latch adjustment was... moved one notch, put it back
together, and it was fixed. just wanted to rant.

 

Thats not something i would expect out of Mini to be honest.
Nice fix man.
Props for actually trying to solve the problem instead of taking it in. Much quiker.easier to just fix it your self.

 

thanks.

in reality, there are many little things like this that go wrong on the
MINI's. you just dont hear about it from owners because they are
usually so much in love with their cars.... but for me, i luv my MINI,
but im not a MINI-fanatic so when things are subpar, i talk about it
and look for a cure.

my car is far out of warranty. it's a 03' going on 6th year next month.
the driving dynamics is super nice on this car though and that's wat i
like about the car so much... well, and the comical good looks.

 

happy to report that my fix on my cooper-s last night cured the problem.
also cured the rattling that it had over rough roads... i didnt think it was
the glove box but this am the ride was nice and quiet inside the cabin.





i need to check where my oil life indicator is on my FitS... it should be
coming up to maybe 30% for a change by late Sept. going to use
M1 5W-20. i also need to replace the wiper inserts pretty soon.

i usually replace the inserts every 6-7months. it's going on 9th month
now. the winter weather kills them.

 

been having this werd reverse indentation on my MT shifter boot the
last few days. not sure wat happened. it like bent inward at like the
2nd from the bottom ring. you remember back in the days seeing
those boombox speakers at the stores where some kid pushed the center
dome cap (dust cap) inward? thats wat it looked like.



so while the boot was still on the car, i pulled the boot adjacent to the
inward bend to pop it back to shape and left it like that for a few hours
out in the sun. i think it cured itself...


after all this talk about me not wanting an arm rest in my MT cars, i
may have to take the plunge to get one later on for the FitS... i keep
resting my right hand on the passenger seat while im waiting for the
light...and i dont want to accidentally rest my hand there when a
guy's sitting there in the passenger seat.

 

We ordered the JDM console for ours. I've owned countless manual cars (maybe 15ish) and the Fit is the only one without an armrest. Never had a single car that the armrest was in the way of shifting.

edit. Hmm...that got me thinking. Let's see in no particular order...1980 Prelude, 1985 Toyota van, 1987 Supra, 1988 Mustang GT, 1989 Taurus SHO, 1993 Taurus SHO, 1992 Mustang LX 5.0, 1990 Mustang LX 5.0, 2000 Jetta tdi, Contour v6, 2002 Sentra specV, 1990 240sx. Guess that's only twelve manual cars. Had lots of autos also

 

really.... the 02WRX came with this elaborate dealer-aftermarket
subi arm rest (first MT car that came with arm rest for me) and
it constantly hit my elbow so i removed it. im not a big guy, just
the angle of my elbow or something just hits it each time i go to
2nd or 4th or reverse.

on my G35C it came with a low-profile arm rest. it's kinda nice
cause it's low enough that it doesnt hit my elbow, but high
enough that i can actually rest my elbow... well, i dont really
cruise in the car so i dont use it much. plus the seat side bolsters
are big on the car so my arm kinda rests on that.

if i do the armrest, im going to do the zeta one probably. im not
too fond of the corolla looking JDM console. i suppose if you
never had to deal with a pos 04 corolla like i had to, it doesnt
bother you, but it just brings back bad memories.

 

so my legacywgn's driver seat has been killing my (and wife's) lower back
after driving longer trips. we tried many different seat settings but it
just sucks.

so we gave this memory foam wedge a try.... so far so good. if you guys
have issues with your lower back, this might help.

AutoSport Catalog - AutoSport Wedge Cushions - AutoSport Wedge Cushion 800-953-0814