motored my STI this am, had a great time. even while just driving around town relaxed and kinda slow, this car just sounds and drives in a way it brings a smile each time. before pulling out the STI, checked psi, and also noticed the coolant was at the min mark and i realized i didnt have any subaru coolant..have honda, nissan, vw.. but no subaru.. so added a dab of distilled water to bring up the level to about 1/4 above the min line.

going to need to order some coolant today. will do a waterless wash tomorrow after another round. car is kinda dusted up with salt.

after the drive swapped the GK's halogens to those phillips bulbs and cleaned the interior. i noticed the car was clean after my wife brought it home.. yah, she actually took it to a car wash! haha pretty cool.

now just relaxing in my music room, going to take it easy this pm. need to do some holiday shopping for my relatives overseas..

 

subaru super coolant ordered. my car came with the green long life coolant so had to do some checking in the owners manual to see which coolant i can add. the popular coolants for subaru's right now are the blue 'super coolant' and apparently supposed to be used to for topping off the old green coolant and recommended to do a flush using the 'super coolant' when the the green coolant's life is over.. which is 11 yrs or 137K miles.. lol

since i added a dab of distilled water this am, i probably contaminated the solution to last only 10yrs or 125K miles. i only plan to keep the STI another 3-4yrs tops so i dont care.

 

got my new iphone7 case and while its real nice, the gap between the tempered glass cover and case is still there..

oh well. at least my phone is like a tank now. lol

 

ordered a xmas present for myself.

https://www.akg.com/Headphones/Over-...urrent#start=1

very excited. ive always been an AKG fan in my music studio (along with my Sony's) at home so should be a nice addition to my Bose and Sony anc headphones.

decided to pass on the sennheiser as i was reading too many issues with the wireless connectivity and overall assembly.

 

so had to go grab some supper at the local burger joint so took the GK with the new headlight bulbs.

the lamps hue is still the red/yellowish color and i don't really think it is all that great. since i drove the GTI all week i don't really remember how bad the GK's lamps were. it's nowhere near the illumination of my GTI's xenons. plus the GTI has adaptive steering lighting so not a fair comparison at all.

conclusion: before was horrible, now just terrible.

 

got up early to take psi readings on the dd's parked outside this am before sunrise. GK and GTI are showing healthy levels of psi. temps are going to drop considerably this coming saturday so will need to air them up then.

as soon as the roads dry up, pulling out my STI for another round of motoring fun.

 

woot, got tracking numbers for the AKG's and a few other stuff i ordered. should arrive later today.
i think best i open and test them out a few hours before putting it under the xmas tree.

oh wait, we didnt pull out the xmas tree this yr..! lol guess no waiting required!

 

I wonder if the halogen housing design that Honda uses just isn't very good? We put HID's in our Fit and that at least fixed total output, but the light pattern was even worse than with the Halogens (I know the whole don't put HID's in halogen housing thing). Over the years I tried a few different "good" halogen bulbs as well. They all suck!

In comparison, I have used the same bulbs in some of my motorcycles with great results.

This is all coming from the GD though. Guessing the GK is better.

Test drove a few Toyota's last night. I had to keep checking to make sure the headlights were even on. They sucked THAT bad even with the higher trim models. Why any manufacture would bother with halogen projectors is a mystery to me. Either do it right with LED, Xenon, or HID's or don't bother.

 

the GK's lamp housing reflectors arent that well designed. it has a fairly good lighting pattern, but the bulb is just not bright enough to fill the entire pattern. i think with super bright LED's it might work, but then some of the prices i saw were like $200 range. at that price id just keep buying new bulbs using amazon points and just do better than factory illumination.

yah, halogen is old news.. they need to get rid of them entirely. that altima i drove a few week back, that was pretty horrible too especially since i was driving through amish country in ohio.. pitch dark.

 

so ended up not pulling out my STI this am.. air is too humid to dry the roads and it's still wet. too lazy to wash 2 cars tomorrow so decided to just do a nice QD session today.

checked the coolant on the STI and it is exactly at the spot i added water yesterday. will top off as soon as the subaru coolant comes in this week.

 

been doing some online shopping mainly just peripherals.. yawn.. lightening cables, power strip with USB charger, etc.

i am VERY PLEASED that the recent high sierra OS update fixed all the issues i had.

 

my AKG headphones arrived. paired up real easily to my MBP, ipod, and iphone. very cool. N60NC Wireless is the one i got... it's got active noise cancellation and BT wireless.

need to break in the speakers a bit. sounds a bit stiff.. giving it a good charge right now.
wont know for certain how these are going to sound until after break in, but initial thoughts is that it is near the audio quality of the Bose QC35's when they were brand new. my QC35's sounds a lot richer and deeper but ive had them for a few weeks now and listened to them for many hours so that is expected vs brand new headphones.

 

Man when you get bored of a set of headphones lemme know haha.

Washed the civic today. Got the rock chip repaired yesterday. Crack is gone butteeny tiny impact point is still visible because I know its there. Otherwise it just looks like a dry water droplet.

Hope everyone had a good weekend. One more week and this Holiday madness will be over!

 

Good to hear about your rock chip! i'm sure in no time you'll forget it's even there.

yah i'm into audio so planning to change it up when i listen to music.
once you start running these high end anc headphones kinda gets addictive. although not the most ideal listening device but hard to find a super quiet place to listen, so this is good.

 

I'm so ready for the holidays. Two 4 day weekends in a row? NEED IT.

 

agreed! ive called off all biz trips until 2018. just going to wind down this week... starting with washing my GTI
tomorrow (monday) am since im off.

 

alright, got up early and ready to wash the GTI.. but the sun isnt out yet... lazyarse..!

going to clean the interior too today. while it hasn't snowed much where im at this year, there is salt everywhere so the interior needs to be cleaned out.

been breaking in the new AKG's and the audio is definitely starting to warm up, not just to me but the actual audio is starting to get deeper. thing is pretty kickarse.. its an on the ear type but i had it on 3-4 hours last night with NO issue with comfort.

so next week i need to start parking at the new office building.. hope there is ample parking in good spots. im kinda worried if there are any big dips or humps or ramps.. and how wide the spacings are between the cars.

 

i wonder when the 2018 R's are going to start lining up at the vw dealers.. i noticed there is ZERO inventory of 2017 R's and even finding any used 16-17 R's is very difficult. i only see like 4 within a 350miles radius and 2 of them are MT's.

 

was about to walk out to wash my ride only to see via up camera that it's raining..
craps

 

Ewwww they make the R in an automatic? Poor manual trans is slowly dying with every year that passes =(

Bummer about the rain.

I hear that Mike410b! Besides the time off I'm just over the holidays. From Thanksgiving to New Years...If I could take a month long nap...I'd seriously consider it. All the traffic, "need" to partake in the holiday, force obligations etc etc. My holiday spirit was gone long ago lol. I look forward to snow though so I can go Ski haha.

The GF has really been talking about getting a new(er) car. Her 07 elantra has treated her well with an uneventful 210k miles. She is just ready for something with some bells and whistles and good MPG.

IF VW/Audi didnt screw up and have the whole diesel-gate thing...I'd be all over getting her an Audi Diesel. Her cousin has a 2011 335d and that thing is a blast to drive. 425ft/lb, 23/36 MPG and possible 500+ miles to a tank of gas? Unfortunately that was the last year they made them. Now the 328d only has 280ft/lb, 32/45, and 600+ mile range. So 30% loss in torque but you gain that in MPG. So shes torn haha.

She considered a hybrid...but just hates how they drive and electric, short of a tesla X doesnt get enough range.