Saturday, May 4, 2013
Diesel Jetta?
What with all the talk of my 240D dying I took some time today to visit the VW dealer. Angie announced yesterday that she might like a new VW diesel so I figured I ought to check one out.
I've heard talk of difficulty with Toyota and VW dealers but this one in Keene, NH is actually quite nice. The attitude I got from him was that he didn't really give a crap if I bought a car or not as somebody else would come along but he seemed to really know his stuff and was quite willing to stand around and BS with me as long as I wanted. I'm not really familiar with car dealers and I guess acted a bit like a kid, I was rather pleased when he finally offered for me to take a new 2012 Jetta TDI holdover (black on grey, 6spd manual) for a ride. I was doubly pleased when I left alone...
A couple impressions:
Its bigger than I thought, even with the front seat pushed back beyond where I was comfortable I could still sit in the back seat reasonably comfortably.
The trunk is a HUGE cavern, I was frankly amazed.
There is a glowplug light that comes on very briefly when you first turn on the key, the salesman says it always just pops on briefly even at -20F.
Its FAST, seriously fast, like my Dakota with a v8 was fast. As the salesman says the 158hp rating will fool you, diesels are all about torque.
The shifter was smooth and crisp, the steering was nice and crisp, the suspension stiff enough for good handling but compliant enough for a comfortable ride. In fact it reminded me a bit of a well sorted 190D with boatloads more power and slightly heavier steering.
One thing that I didn't think of until just now is that its a front drive car that behaves very much like a rear drive car which is to say there was no torque steer. It feels funny to write that because it didn't occur to me at all at the time.
Overall I very much enjoyed it, if I were to point out any deficiencies it would be that the turn signal and wiper control stalks felt very cheap...
One thing I was pleased with in the discussion of the car was the 12 year rust warranty. The salesman attributed that to "laser sealed seams" which when you look at the doors in particular are very neat and tidy and present no obvious places for water and thus salt to collect.
If it weren't for the $23k price tag (I suspect as this one was a 2012 it could probably be had for more like $20k) I'd have jumped on it. I love my old MBs don't get me wrong but I find myself running around with my pants on fire all the time with broken down cars. My plan right now is to fix the 240D and go through the summer socking some cash away so maybe around the first of the year I can go into looking for one with a nice down payment.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Car troubles
As it stands today we have a little fleet of 3 vehicles:
1. 2003 Ford Ranger XLT: The only gasser in the fleet the Ranger provides 4wd and hauling capacity. What it lacks in size it makes up for in offroad prowess courtesy of a limited slip rear differential. Unfortunately the Ranger had sat at some point before we got it (in 2008) and suffers badly from under carriage rust. Lately rust is bubbling the paint under the passenger side rear door.
2. 1984 Mercedes-Benz 190D: I don't think I've written, or at least written much about my addiction to old diesel Mercedes. This one I scored for $250 because it had a "broken timing chain" which turned out to not be broken at all. The timing chain cover was broken and my friend Fred had a replacement. Sadly this car had been poorly maintained and has required rather a lot of work to sort out. On the plus side its still just under 200,000 miles and starts nearly like a gas car.
3. 1978 Mercedes-Benz 240D: My friend Dwight sold me this old solder when my '83 240D met an untimely end due to a ruptured oil cooler line. I've had it since 2010 and put about 35,000 miles on with relatively little trouble until just before Christmas 2012. In fact it was that incident I wanted to talk about.
We were heading to Maine to see my parents, on rt 495 heading north at about 75mph when I smelled something funny, a glance at the gauges showed the temp gauge absolutely pegged, I went from the left lane to the right and got us stopped fortunately just beyond a rest stop which we were able to roll backwards into. An inspection showed a hose clamp on the lower radiator hose had sheered and broken allowing the hose to fall off and the coolant to fall out. I was lucky enough to have a zip tie in the car along with a couple gallons of water and astonishingly we were able to drive back home...
A couple days later I played around with the car and amazingly it seemed to run pretty well. It clattered like crazy on startup but that noise went away after a minute or so. I changed the oil and kept on driving it. Fast forward 5,000 miles until last Tuesday. I was on my way to work and smelled coolant. I was in heavy traffic and the temp gauge was starting to climb. I flipped on the heat full blast and fortunately as the traffic broke up the temp went back down. At lunch I managed to get a quart of coolant into the radiator. On the way home, again in heavy traffic it heated up again. This time I got most of a gallon of coolant in. The next day the problem became clear. I can pour in all the coolant I want but something pushes it back out again. That something is exhaust gasses passing from the cylinder to the water jacket through a failed head gasket almost certainly caused by a massive overheat. I'd left the radiator cap loose as I was worried that putting pressure in the system would cause this but I guess it was just a matter of time.
Angie quickly decided it was time for a new car but has balked at what new cars cost (more on that next time) and frankly I'm not real excited about a big car payment. I put out a note on the OkieBenz email list about the issue and suggested that if my friends pushed me I'd probably do the head gasket but if I had to pay somebody to do it the cost would quickly run up to the value of the car. As I expected my friends responded that I should do it and they would help.
This my friends is a big step into mechanic-dom which I've never made before, the head gasket is under the head which is connected to the engine by not only the bolts but also the timing chain. Breaking the timing chain (which you have to do to take the head off) is a big deal and I'm scared of it. Get it back together right and everything is good, do it poorly and the valves meet the pistons and the whole engine is junk. Currently I'm tentatively planning the job for May 11, probably going to order parts tomorrow. If worse comes to worst I'll haul the car and the parts to my mechanic for installation but considering the low value of the car I'd like to be able to do it myself to hold down costs...
1. 2003 Ford Ranger XLT: The only gasser in the fleet the Ranger provides 4wd and hauling capacity. What it lacks in size it makes up for in offroad prowess courtesy of a limited slip rear differential. Unfortunately the Ranger had sat at some point before we got it (in 2008) and suffers badly from under carriage rust. Lately rust is bubbling the paint under the passenger side rear door.
2. 1984 Mercedes-Benz 190D: I don't think I've written, or at least written much about my addiction to old diesel Mercedes. This one I scored for $250 because it had a "broken timing chain" which turned out to not be broken at all. The timing chain cover was broken and my friend Fred had a replacement. Sadly this car had been poorly maintained and has required rather a lot of work to sort out. On the plus side its still just under 200,000 miles and starts nearly like a gas car.
3. 1978 Mercedes-Benz 240D: My friend Dwight sold me this old solder when my '83 240D met an untimely end due to a ruptured oil cooler line. I've had it since 2010 and put about 35,000 miles on with relatively little trouble until just before Christmas 2012. In fact it was that incident I wanted to talk about.
We were heading to Maine to see my parents, on rt 495 heading north at about 75mph when I smelled something funny, a glance at the gauges showed the temp gauge absolutely pegged, I went from the left lane to the right and got us stopped fortunately just beyond a rest stop which we were able to roll backwards into. An inspection showed a hose clamp on the lower radiator hose had sheered and broken allowing the hose to fall off and the coolant to fall out. I was lucky enough to have a zip tie in the car along with a couple gallons of water and astonishingly we were able to drive back home...
A couple days later I played around with the car and amazingly it seemed to run pretty well. It clattered like crazy on startup but that noise went away after a minute or so. I changed the oil and kept on driving it. Fast forward 5,000 miles until last Tuesday. I was on my way to work and smelled coolant. I was in heavy traffic and the temp gauge was starting to climb. I flipped on the heat full blast and fortunately as the traffic broke up the temp went back down. At lunch I managed to get a quart of coolant into the radiator. On the way home, again in heavy traffic it heated up again. This time I got most of a gallon of coolant in. The next day the problem became clear. I can pour in all the coolant I want but something pushes it back out again. That something is exhaust gasses passing from the cylinder to the water jacket through a failed head gasket almost certainly caused by a massive overheat. I'd left the radiator cap loose as I was worried that putting pressure in the system would cause this but I guess it was just a matter of time.
Angie quickly decided it was time for a new car but has balked at what new cars cost (more on that next time) and frankly I'm not real excited about a big car payment. I put out a note on the OkieBenz email list about the issue and suggested that if my friends pushed me I'd probably do the head gasket but if I had to pay somebody to do it the cost would quickly run up to the value of the car. As I expected my friends responded that I should do it and they would help.
This my friends is a big step into mechanic-dom which I've never made before, the head gasket is under the head which is connected to the engine by not only the bolts but also the timing chain. Breaking the timing chain (which you have to do to take the head off) is a big deal and I'm scared of it. Get it back together right and everything is good, do it poorly and the valves meet the pistons and the whole engine is junk. Currently I'm tentatively planning the job for May 11, probably going to order parts tomorrow. If worse comes to worst I'll haul the car and the parts to my mechanic for installation but considering the low value of the car I'd like to be able to do it myself to hold down costs...
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Cleaned my bench!
I'm not a neat person. There, I've admitted it.
Over the course of just a few months my work bench in the garage had gotten terribly messy. Lantern parts, snowmobile parts, car parts, etc... It was getting hard to work and frankly dangerous in that I was always at risk of breaking something while working on something else. The time had come for a spring cleaning.
I read once somebody that posted "My garage is so messy its hard to get anything done but if I cleaned up I'd be getting nothing done". Frankly thats one of the dumbest things I've ever read...
Anyway it took me a couple hours and here's the result:
Looks good right? What you can't see is the dire strait of the rest of the garage. Something must be done and its got to get done soon, the lawnmower has to be dug out, the snowblower needs to go for a winter time sleep, the stupid Polaris has to get outside, the Kawasaki motorcycle needs to be sold, the Honda needs to be fixed.... *sigh*
Over the course of just a few months my work bench in the garage had gotten terribly messy. Lantern parts, snowmobile parts, car parts, etc... It was getting hard to work and frankly dangerous in that I was always at risk of breaking something while working on something else. The time had come for a spring cleaning.
I read once somebody that posted "My garage is so messy its hard to get anything done but if I cleaned up I'd be getting nothing done". Frankly thats one of the dumbest things I've ever read...
Anyway it took me a couple hours and here's the result:
Looks good right? What you can't see is the dire strait of the rest of the garage. Something must be done and its got to get done soon, the lawnmower has to be dug out, the snowblower needs to go for a winter time sleep, the stupid Polaris has to get outside, the Kawasaki motorcycle needs to be sold, the Honda needs to be fixed.... *sigh*
Monday, March 25, 2013
Another cruise!
Just got back from 8 nights on the high seas of the eastern Caribbean on board Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas.
If you look back a couple years this is our second cruise. This ship is MUCH larger. The Norwegian Star we were on last time is 91,000ish tons while the IotS is more like 150,000... Interestingly its not really any taller but it is longer and wider (the Star was limited so it can go through the Panama Canal). As a technical innovation its amazing, the Grand Promenade down the center of the ship is astonishing and the ability to surf or boogie board on the Flow Rider is great fun.
Interestingly we decided that we don't actually have a preference when it comes to Royal Caribbean vs Norwegian. On the first cruise we met people who complained about Norwegian and the food options and theres definitely a big difference, especially in the buffet. The buffet on Norwegian felt like a cafeteria, which is to say low rent. On Royal Caribbean it was much more upscale. The grand dining room on Independence of the Seas is also gorgeous and out did the Versailles dining room on the Star.
That said I thought our stateroom on the Star was a little bigger, the bathroom was definitely bigger, the shower on the Independence was very small. In both cases we'd paid a little extra for a slightly nicer room though both ships have rooms much nicer than ours.
The one thing Royal Caribbean had over Norwegian was the boarding process. Now I'll grant that it was Norwegian's first time sailing out of Tampa but it took us something like 3 hours to get on the dang ship which then left an hour late. On Royal Caribbean we went from our shuttle to our stateroom in maybe 15 minutes most of which was walking around finding our room since I'm a traditional man and refuse to ask questions.
Anyway I'll post more details about the trip later after I've had some rest and time to process.
If you look back a couple years this is our second cruise. This ship is MUCH larger. The Norwegian Star we were on last time is 91,000ish tons while the IotS is more like 150,000... Interestingly its not really any taller but it is longer and wider (the Star was limited so it can go through the Panama Canal). As a technical innovation its amazing, the Grand Promenade down the center of the ship is astonishing and the ability to surf or boogie board on the Flow Rider is great fun.
Interestingly we decided that we don't actually have a preference when it comes to Royal Caribbean vs Norwegian. On the first cruise we met people who complained about Norwegian and the food options and theres definitely a big difference, especially in the buffet. The buffet on Norwegian felt like a cafeteria, which is to say low rent. On Royal Caribbean it was much more upscale. The grand dining room on Independence of the Seas is also gorgeous and out did the Versailles dining room on the Star.
That said I thought our stateroom on the Star was a little bigger, the bathroom was definitely bigger, the shower on the Independence was very small. In both cases we'd paid a little extra for a slightly nicer room though both ships have rooms much nicer than ours.
The one thing Royal Caribbean had over Norwegian was the boarding process. Now I'll grant that it was Norwegian's first time sailing out of Tampa but it took us something like 3 hours to get on the dang ship which then left an hour late. On Royal Caribbean we went from our shuttle to our stateroom in maybe 15 minutes most of which was walking around finding our room since I'm a traditional man and refuse to ask questions.
Anyway I'll post more details about the trip later after I've had some rest and time to process.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Fiesta transmission
I just realized my Fiesta post was screwed up, frickin Blogger messing with my text...
Anyway I also realized I'd posted about the transmission and what I didn't know at that time is that the automatic transmission in the Fiesta is actually a SEMI-automatic, they call it the "Ford Powershift" in reality its a dual clutch transmission not unlike the VW DSG trans. So the backing off of the throttle I noticed was because the car is putting in the clutch, and shifting while not under power. Just like you'd do when driving a manual transmission. Now that I know what it was doing it makes perfect sense and doesn't feel weird at all but until somebody pointed out what was going on it was very disconcerting...
Anyway one last note about the car, on the way back to the airport I looked down and realized I was going much faster than the speed limit. The car didn't betray the speed at all, it wasn't buzzy or crying or shaking or anything, pretty impressive.
Anyway one last note about the car, on the way back to the airport I looked down and realized I was going much faster than the speed limit. The car didn't betray the speed at all, it wasn't buzzy or crying or shaking or anything, pretty impressive.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Fun Ford
I'm in so-Cal this week and have a Ford Fiesta as a rental. Bright red, auto trans (of course) sedan. Its got around 20,000 miles so it must be reaching about the end of its rental life.
I've got to say Ford seems to have the small car figured out. I find this car comfortable and pleasant in every way possible. The only complaint I have is that the satellite radio isn't activated, again as its near the end of its rental career thats a given. It talked to my iPhone nicely so its no big whoop.
LOADS of torque steer when you really get into it would irritate some folks I'm sure but its a little car, I expected it. One interesting thing I'd noticed before in Fords but hadn't fully sussed out until today is that the throttle backs off just before each shift which for me makes the shifts feel really weird. Its less weird now that I've realized whats going on and presumably the presence will make the transmission last longer.
Anyway I've been thinking that when my 190D comes to replacement time (probably in 3 or so years) I'd consider a small, high gas mileage, new car and the Fiesta is probably the top of my list. Mostly because we have a Ford dealer right down the street. Now I want to try one with a manual trans...
Saturday, January 12, 2013
A whole year...
As a follow up on the challenge videos I still can't believe I finished the whole year!
52 weeks, 52 videos, 52 challenges...
As of this writing there are 72 videos up on my Youtube channel, you can see them all here: http://www.youtube.com/user/curtludwig
52 weeks, 52 videos, 52 challenges...
As of this writing there are 72 videos up on my Youtube channel, you can see them all here: http://www.youtube.com/user/curtludwig
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