Miata income can pay to fix the Elantra

 

shinjari, definitely one of those times you need a decent independent shop!

Son is home sick from school today. A vomiting 7 yo is not helping me get through my workload. Think it would be easier if I was the one sick.

 

Lol yeah. Today was spent getting price quotes on the harness. $70-85 online and depending how fast I wanted it. Locally $120-150 and 2 day shipping.

No dealer would give me a quote/ballpark for the repair.

Me: "I have the the CEL code(s), can you tell me roughly what it'll cost?"
Shop: "We have to run a diagnostic to pull the code"
Me: "I have the code(s). "
Shop: "WE have to do an inspection to ensure the code is correct. We cannot warranty a repair based on the code YOU provide" (the codes will be the same you piece of sh....)
Me: "Ok....(for grins) whats the inspection cost?"
Shop: "$135...and if you decide to get the repair work done, it will be applied towards the repair"
Me: "Thanks...you can go F yourself"

Ok that last line isn't verbatim but close enough.

After reading/researching the repair won't be bad...just drain, drop pan, drop valve body, replace harness, reinstall and replace fluids. Hardest part for me would be the stupid silicone gasket.

 

Pretty quiet here. Hope all is well.

Harness arrives tomorrow, dont have to deal with silicon gasket as they make a felt/rubber gasket for the trans filter kit.

Have a great Thursday ladies and gents.

 

Hey Shijari you woke me up. I was ZZZzzzing.... ;-p

I'd rather have a real gasket than one that comes out of a squeeze tube. Car makers love that stuff, so much easier to glue things together. For the guy that comes after it's not great.

Have a good day, I hope your repair goes well.

 

Yeah, I'm still mad at Honda for using gasket maker on the entire timing chain cover on the Fit. It was a royal PITA to scrape off all the old stuff from my friends Fit when we had it apart to fix the cylinder head.

In their defense, it is a small and really long mating surface.

 

Ive had success with the silicon gasket...just takes prep work to scrape off old material to ensure mating surfaces are good. Do a good star pattern as you tighten. Dont over tighten. Wait for it to cure before you can put fluids back.

 

My model of GTI has a glued on timing chain cover. To change the tensioner that cover must come off. It is darned near impossible to remove the cover without tweaking the cover. Many folks have tried to reuse it ending up with an oil leak. Man I'd hate to do that job twice. Lucky for me my car has the latest version of the tensioner.

 

At least your model has a metal oil pan! Every time I change our oil I see that plastic pan and cringe. I know they are becoming the norm, but it still doesn't seem like a good idea.

 

If I move into a MK7 I'll be buying a steel oil pan. Like you those plastic pans scare me.

 

Plastic Oil pans?! What?

 

Yes sir strange & weird as it is VW now uses plastic oil pans. I wonder what the life span of the plastic is. Seems to me most all plastic gets brittle with age.

Plastic yikes!!!

 

Just got back from a blast over the mountain and back. Took the Lincoln this time. It's a whole lot of fun and gets some strange looks from "sports" car drivers as it goes by them at full boost. Did the run with my hottest tune this time. 400+awhp for the win!

Pretty sure I'll go back to rear wheel drive after I'm done with the Lincoln though. As good as it is, I just don't like the 60/40 weight distribution of it or other transaxle based vehicles.

Even a Charger Scat Pack with the giant 392 hemi in front has a better weight distribution (54/46) than the best transaxle cars.

I wouldn't care so much if I didn't live in the mountains. On flat ground most feel fine. Start diving deep into corners on steep downhill sections though and that front heavy weight distribution makes them a mess. My poor Lincoln's stability control, front brakes, and front tires start begging for mercy.

Once again, why I see so many Miata's around here.

 

Speaking of Miatas did I mention the Miata is now with a new owner? I forget haha. Jealous of your drive. Need to take the motorcycle out sometime.

Filled up the Civic for the 3rd time running the Ktuner stage 2 Tune. 33.9mpg still. Very stoked about that. Granted I feel even with the tune I've been driving even more conservatively haha.

Well went thru the repair on the Elantra. Dropped the pan and valve body. Went to check resistance on the solenoids....but my cheapo Harbor Freight multimeter wouldn't give me any readings. Voltage reads fine....but resistance was a no go. SO I had to borrow my buddies Fluke auto sensing meter and it read like a champ. All solenoids good. Pull the wiring harness in question and you tell me where the issue(s) are in the photos below.





At least I know the magnets did something haha. Or it was too long between intervals. Told the GF I was fairly certain we haven't done in quite sometime but she disagreed.

Replaced that harness, button everything back up. I have to tighten everything to 7-8 ft/lbs. SO I bought a 3/8 torque wrench since my 1/2" doesn't go that low. Hell the 3/8 barely went down to 5 or it claimed to. I reinstalled the Valve body...started my star pattern of tightening...seriously felt like it wasn't clicking or doing it right as these bolts required very little to remove. Then SNAP. Snapped one of the (17) M6 x 30mm shoulder flange bolts. Mother F.....

Removed the Valve body and luckily I was able to remove the broken bolt. Went to Autozone bought a couple M6 x 30mm bolts...and finished the repair. DIdn't use the torque wrench but tightened to what I felt was appropriate as I didn't want to risk it again. Maybe I needed to get a 1/4" torque wrench or driver style torque tool. Checked this morning...no leaks. Need to drive it to check the levels. I basically replaced what I removed quart for quart which was 5.

Today is wash the cars....top off fluid....return the shitty torque wrench....clean house... Relax?

Enough of my rambling. Have a good Sunday!

 

shinjari great job! Saved a pile of money. I've found that when a torque spec is that low I'm better off just using my built into my right arm torque wrench.

Congrats on selling your Miata. I figured it would sell fast. Those cars are in demand.
Happy Sunday.

 

hummm.. 6 days 1.5 page since the last time i posted, over 1200 views. i checked in from time to time without posting to see if anyone else would want to join the conversation, but i guess its only just the five of us.. lol

shinjari- nice job on the repair! so...wat to do with the $1500+ u just saved? torque wrench?

gafit- canyon carving is fun, light weight helps greatly fosho. hope u find da next car.

mike- did you get the wheels from jland and installed on ur GE?

ash- plastic oil pans arent anything new. they wont break unless u go off the road on a lowered ride and clip the curb or something. i have zero worries on my Golf-R. ECS tuning sells steel pans for like $85, stainless for a couple of hundred for the MK7's if that worries u so much. they also sell aluminum skid plates /lower shrouds.

 

for me i got the WRX tinted last week and it looks okay but not overly impressed with the new installer's work. he knows my usual installer (who he respects) and he noted he wanted to be my tint guy's 'alternative' guy. well, i showed him closeup pictures of his work vs my usual guy's work on my STI where my guy excels by a good margin. needless to say, the new tint guy told me to come back tomorrow am to fix the tint where i wasnt happy. pita.. but at least the guy is trying and is polite.. and i DO want an alternative tint guy for backup so will give him another try. the car is running Global Premium QDP charcoal non-metallicwhich is supposedly their premium tint. its got a slight brownish hue to it more so than my usual Llumar Pinnacle which i wasnt really thrilled about either.. but its okay, functionally it does its job well.

also removed the voltage multiplier off the WRX and returned it. the issue was when the a/c compressor turns on the amount of load is quite significant so while the ac is running the voltage multiplier is fine, but when the compressor momentarily turns off the rpm tends to shoot higher dan expected which made it a little tricky to drive at times. used the money to get a muffler delete per my kid's request and installed it. it looks good ill give it dat.. fitment was perfect. thing is loud at cold start though, also sounds kinda immature during normal driving... but with the AP stage1+ i plan to get down the road, i think the intake/turbo spool noise will match the exhaust note better to balance the noise from the rear and front.

so yesterday and this am took the WRX on my usual weekend drives, did one WOT run, etc. never mind the WOT run, thing is slow compared to my STI and R.. definitely needs a tune. but the driving dynamics, the more i drive it harder, the car feels like a poorman's Golf-R. and that is a compliment as the e-steering feels good, vectoring works very well in tighter fast turns, ride is comfy while i think it could use a tad stiffer set of swaybars. kinda weird but i thought it was funny how the WRX resembled a Golf more so dan a STI.

 

so i read in the news dat VW mexico has a sonic boom machine to rid hail.. wow, wish we could install dat in all the major cities..

 

oh yah, forgot to note my cardboard circles (tirerack packaging) decided to crash into my R's front bumper in the garage. my kid was putting them away last time and i think he didnt know how to stack it up properly as i place them vertically to save floor space... got one vertical scratch on the clearbra that i couldnt polish out completely.. and its not a self-heal type i used so it needs to be replaced. meaning, heatgun cant fix it.

so ordered up a new set with self-heal dis time. hope to find time to replace it in september before it gets too cold..

 

Nope, those won't go on until next spring, won't even be here until Novemberish.