The Joys of a Used Car

Over the past few weeks, I've been digging into some aspects of the car and cleaning things up.

The sunday after i got back from the drive, i got curious as to what one of those thunking noises was.. Behind the driver's seat there's a chamber for a Bose subwoofer system, or the glove box on the RHD vehicles. Popping this open revealed an amplifier for a subwoofer that's no longer there. Just flopping about, not fastened down in any way. Oh good.

I yanked that out, with a large sum of stereo wiring that was no longer in use.

[caption id="attachment_96" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Oh look, it's a big pile of previous owner.[/caption]

After that, started cleaning out the trunk. There's some sort of oily residue all over the inside of the trunk. About a bottle of 409 degreaser, and a roll of paper towels later, that nasty mess was cleaned up.

Next was the window tint. I kind of like it on the rear, but it's way too dark on the fronts.. So that had to go. I picked up a heat gun at harbor freight and went to town. It actually came off fairly easily once brought up to temp. A little more work with a razor blade and what was left of that bottle of 409 took out the rest of it. I can now see out the windows in less than sunny weather! huzzah!

Minor tasks rectified, it became time to start attacking the suspension with  the replacements and upgrades i'd purchased.

I jacked the car up, and attempted to take off the wheels.. Whoops.. forgot to break the lugs loose before I did.. not a problem, i have an electric impact and it makes.. oh. Damn. These are really on there. Had to get a little clever with a jack handle to get the fronts off. Oh look.. there's two different sized lug nuts on each wheel.. 19mm and 21 mm.. WHHHYYY??? i get if you don't have a full set of the same size, but why would you inter mingle them like that? I can see 1 wheel having 21s, and the rest being 19.. but this? WTF?  Whatever, moving on.

Next I attacked the light task of swapping out the brake pads and decided i should get that pesky e-brake adjusted too. Both of those went pretty quick once i figured out the procedure for adjusting the e-brake properly.

Next up was the rear swaybar. I yanked it out, completely. with what i want to do, i wan the rear wheels having full articulation. The big Hotchkiss unit i have for the front should keep body roll in check enough for both ends.

Next was dealing with the aftermarket toe arms.. Hooray.. toe adjusters. I got the passenger size off with out too much fighting, but the driver's side was absolutely seized. I would need a torch, and it was already 10:30 on a work night. Time for bed.

The next night I came back, torch in hand and PB Blaster at my side and went to work. After much heat, and some agressive use of a floor jack for additional power, it started to move. The last arm was free, and I was going to be able to wrap up the back end! Huzzah! Pull the bolt out, and.. Crap.



One of these things, is not like the other. One of these things doesn't belong.
The metal under the toe adjuster has been worn away over the car's life, now leaving a big ass hole where a bolt should be fastening to metal. Continuing to make things worse, this is part of the sub frame, which is made of aluminum. So, welding would be difficult, expensive, and beyond the scope of most of my car buddies. Not to mention, this pick up point controls toe, so if it's slightly out of wack, and gives me more toe than i should be able to have.. it's protestable.

So, at this point, I've ordered a replacement subframe from a junk yard, and have also ordered whiteline's bushing kits for the subframe and differential. I guess if i have to tear everything off the car, i might as well get those hard to reach bushings while i'm at it.

On top of everything, I'd spilled my beer fighting the car to free the toe bolt. Damn.
I called it a night, and went to bed.

Inspection time

The morning after I got back, I (justifiably) started the morning lazy in bed. A little extra sleep is justified after the previous day's activities. But I can't sleep for long.. If I don't get to the DMV and get the paperwork finished on this buy, it'll probably be a week before I can.

I feel bad for the lady behind the counter.. I haven't made it easy. I need to register a car, renew 2 other plates, transfer my personal plates on to the newly registered car, and obtain replacement plates for the old one. We were both plenty confused, but we got through it. Here's hoping all the paperwork goes through correct.. I won't know until the title and new plates show up on my doorstep.

With all my paperwork done, the car is now officially mine! Hooray!

I got a call from a friend who wanted to meet for lunch.. what the heck, no real plans to day anyway. and head downtown for some grub. I couldn't help but snap a pic..

[caption id="attachment_90" align="aligncenter" width="300"] A beautiful sunny morning in Minnesota spring.[/caption]

After a tasty lunch, I decided it would be good to head over to Jeff the Alignment Guy and see if there was any hope of sliding on to the lift for a quick inspection. Upon arrival I learn He's booked solid, but tells me if I can convince the next guy to wait, I can slide it on. Thankfully, most of Jeff's customers are like me, massive gear heads. So, when I explained the situation, and that I swore I would take no more than 10 minutes, they agreed and I was on the lift.

It only took a few minutes to run through the basics. Right away I went for the rear suspension. The SPC camber arms I'd spotted earlier was correct, and I was able to identify the coil overs as Stance brand (ugh), model unknown. Everything is looking good until I realized there's no lower arm. It's been replaced with an aftermarket piece with hiem joints to adjust toe. Damn. I'm going to have to get some stock replacement ones to stay legal. Add those to the list.

Moving forward, I find out the exhaust is a true dual setup. This sucks for me, as I was hoping for an after market y-pipe that would be modifiable to use with a much lighter single exit exhaust. Damn. Oh, and one of the clamps is missing. Small exhaust leak would explain some of the drone I heard on the way back.

Finally moving all the way forward, i found it's missing an under tray. Yet another item to add to the list.

Wrapping up, I roll off the lift in 1o min as promised, and wished Jeff and his customer thanks, and a good day.

The Trip Back

I pulled out of the dealership and headed back towards Oklahoma City to meet up with I-35 again to head northbound. After about 15 minutes of driving, I just about crapped myself.

The tire pressure monitor light started to blink. Crap.

Now, illuminating is one thing.. low pressure I can deal with. But flashing? that either means system fault, or flat tire. I'm crossing my fingers hard for system fault, as I really don't want to have to deal with a flat tire this early in my journey.. or at all in my journey.

I pulled off at the next exit which also happened to have a truck stop, and did an immediate walk around. Nope no flat tire.. whew. But it doesn't mean one of them isn't under inflated, and I didn't think to throw a tire pressure gauge in my travel kit. But hey, truck stop. They've gotta sell 'em. And they do, thankfully. They also offer a loaner, but being I was going on a long drive I figured having one along wouldn't be a bad plan.

So I check pressures on three out of four tires and it's all looking good, then I came across what's probably the source of the fault. On the back right wheel the valve stem is damaged. it's missing enough threads that the highest point on it is the actual valve plunger. It was conveniently covered by a cap. I can't even get a seal enough to get a pressure reading, but the tire isn't flat.

[caption id="attachment_86" align="aligncenter" width="300"] A quick shot at the truck stop[/caption]

I've got to gamble and keep going for a few reasons. The biggest being the tire is stretched onto the wheel, so even if take it to a tire shop to have another valve stem installed, they may not be able to re-seat the bead with their equipment, or the tire may be damaged in the process. They're terrible tires, but the replacements are about 800 miles away and were little big to get into carry on. Besides, if it's going to break, the closer it breaks to home the less it's going to cost me to rectify.

So, I buy a bottle of water, stick my gopro to the window to start my time lapse experiment (didn't quite work out) and got back on the road. I've got a long way to go.

[caption id="attachment_87" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The time lapse didn't work out. Imagine this picture, moving slightly for 12 hours.[/caption]

At this point I've also kicked off Google maps, and it's saying I should make it home around 1am. "That's actually pretty doable" I think, and throw my plans for another night's hotel room into the wind. I'm going to do this in one shot.

I got out of OKC just fine, and got out onto the wide open nothingness that is I-35 that far south. The more I'm driving the more I'm noticing things. The instrument cluster is pretty handy, as it has kind of a "mission clock" function that will show you duration and distance traveled in one view.  The stereo is feeding me tunes, but not pleasantly.. those blown speakers really suck. But Bluetooth is nice. I attempted to take a call with it, but it seems that the microphone isn't hooked up or damaged. It's present, but non-functional. Put another check box on the list. And to top it off, the stereo's in demo mode.. so I get an awesome disco effect while it tells me about "BASS BOOST" and loops my phone's name. I've pushed every button and menu I can find on it, and can't figure out how to disable it. I'm also noticing there's no clock.. it must have been integrated into the factory head unit. I can probably get the new head unit to be a clock, but not in demo mode. By this point, the lack of cruise control is starting to make itself apparent.

But it's time for the first pit stop.

I stopped at 1/4 tank left, as it's a new to me car, and I'll figure out the limits of the fuel tank when I'm closer to home. I pulled into the next exit displaying a shell station, to promptly find the lack of anything higher than 87 octane. Crap. I passed a Cenex on the way to the shell, so I swung back and luckily find they have 91 oct. As I'm filling up, I looked up how to disable demo mode on the stereo. Hold down menu while it's off? who the hell would think to try that? Whatever. it's now not flashing. I also got curous about the rear suspension. A quick second on my belly shows me that it's already got a part I ordered... the SPC Camber arms. Guess I can return those.

After all that's done, I head into use the restroom to find a bunch of "good 'ol boys" hanging out at some tables in the gas station. Now, this isn't a gas station plus food court sort of place.. it's just kind of a dumpy gas station with a few card tables setup to one side and about 4-5 chaw-chewin grizzly lookin' dudes just hanging out having coffee.. on a Friday afternoon. Oh the joys of small town America. Walking into the bathroom, I'm greeted by a lovely handwritten sign over the urinal "Don't put paper towels in the toilet! it backs up!" Fair words of wisdom.. but there's more.. in different pen, written below it is also written "Or condoms!". Wow. this may be the worst gas station restroom I've ever set foot in.. and people are fucking here. Society has reached a new low. And yet, there's another line. "Or hot sauce!". What? I have no.. whatever. I turn to the sink and immediately come to the conclusion that my hands are cleaner not having touched that, and opt to move on.

Back on the road again with a full tank of gas, I spend some time jockeying the phone and my maps. It looks like i'll be hitting Kansas City around 5pm. Damn.. traffic. Getting dinner in KC was always in the plans, as I can't pass up a damn good plate of BBQ. I demanded yelp point me at the best BBQ in KC and set Google nav towards it.

Shortly after I crossed the border into Kansas, and was greeted by their turnpike toll booth. It's a check in/check out style toll where you're given a ticket at your entry point and pay when you get off the road. At this point, I'm a bit nervous. I've heard people getting through the state a little too quickly receiving a speeding ticket on the spot.. and I'm not exactly a light foot, especially on these long trips where you can make up serious time doing 5-10mph faster than usual. I opt to keep going, and slow at one of the rest stations for awhile instead.

It's about 2 hours later that I notice some people are really ripping it up on the freeway. Lets just say in my road trip history in the past few years, I don't have a lot of occurrences of being passed.. and certainly not at the pace these people are. I know the tires on the rear are the wrong size, but I had assumed only about a 1-2 mph variant from the speedo. I downloaded a GPS speedo to my phone (why do I have almost perfect LTE in the middle of nowhere, and practically none in downtown Minneapolis Sprint!?) and line up a long straight. Wow.. it's 6mph slower than what the speedo's reading at 75. Damn it, I've practically been obeying the speed limit! I kept wondering why I wasn't seeing big changes in Google's ETA, and now I know. Time to hammer down. With the speedo now reading 90, ground peeled away much faster, and my fears of getting a ticket from the border guards in Missouri have subsided.

I hit Kansas city only slightly earlier than anticipated (damn spedo) and so as expected i've landed in traffic. Definitely getting some practice with this clutch. Oh well, only a few minutes of traffic before I arrive at my chosen dinner spot, I can live with that.

Dinner is at Oklahoma Joe's BBQ and if you think it looks like a run down gas station.. you'd be absolutely correct. But god damn if the yelp reviews haven't pointed me correctly again.. this food is AWESOME. bonus points that I could grab some snacks at the wal-mart across the street for the rest of the drive.

[caption id="attachment_81" align="aligncenter" width="225"] A stop for some tasty BBQ.[/caption]

Leaving Kansas city I hit a little more traffic, but nothing terrible, and started again with my blitzkrieg. I was at over half tank on the Z, so I didn't bother to refuel before leaving. I'd have to make another stop either way, might as well do it in Iowa and get a stretch sooner than later.

As the sun came down, I got to switch on the headlights.. oh my. Factory HIDs are very, very nice.

As I headed north, the temperatures dropped. Minnesota had a late snowstorm the night I left, and I was a little worried about what I'd find. If roads got too slick, I'd have to find somewhere to bed down as the shot summer tires would do me no favors if I encountered any ice or snow.

The gas needle is now getting closer to E than I feel comfortable after dark in the middle of Iowa in a car I have no clue as to weather or not the gas gauge  reads even close to accurate. It's time for a stop.. and how could I not opt for something as well named as a Kum & Go.

[caption id="attachment_83" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Just a routine gas stop..[/caption]

As I topped off, a couple of local kids rolled up in their pickup.. looked like an S-10, but appeared lowered and like it had a V8. The driver eyeballed the Z and gave me a nod. I returned the gesture and went about filling the tank and dealing with the bug stained windshield.

Pit stop completed, the locals leave just before me and I can't help but think they may be willing to play. I take the left at the light with a little speed, pick my line, and start to roll on the gas and WHOA.. she starts to step out. Combo of much power, shitty tires, and just the right throttle point and she wanted to bite me back. Doesn't mean I gave up though. I closed on the locals before they made it to the on ramp and got right on their ass. Play they did. They couldn't get away. This car is QUICK. I gave 'em a wave as we both hit the freeway and I passed 'em.

The final stretch. You know Iowa is a sad place where just about every distance sign you see past Des Monies includes how far you are to the Twin Cities. "We know where you're going. There's nothing interesting between here and there." But seeing each sign confirms I have enough gas to get all the way home.

But as I'm approaching the Minnesota border, the indicator comes on the dash. "ICY". It's 37 degrees out and dark, and I'm starting to see that reflective sheen of what was a slightly damp road now frozen. Crap. Okay, drop speed and keep a feel for the road.. if anything gets dicey, it's time to pull off.

As I get to 494 an unwelcome sight appears.. they've closed the exit.. for snow removal. Oh well, I guess I have to go to 62.. but I'm not a fan of how that on ramp is designed. I take care and drive it nice and smooth, but I can't get a run on it. As I approach the crest, I suddenly feel like I know how Hans Gruber felt when John McClain threw him out that window. The wheels started to spin. crap, Crap, CRAP! Thinking fast I lift just a little bit and regain traction enough to get over the crest and safely onto 62. Thankfully I'm close to home, so that I don't have to drive very far with that much shit in my pants.

A few minutes I was home.. new baby safely tucked into my driveway, and me safely tucked into bed.

[caption id="attachment_84" align="aligncenter" width="271"] The Google Log of the whole trip[/caption]

The Car

After a long ass day of travel, I've had a whole 6hrs of sleep and I'm anxious to get to my new ride..

The a driver for the dealership picked me up and took me the half hour drive from the OKC airport to the dealership, and there she was.

[caption id="attachment_71" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The steed as approached..[/caption]

That awful wing and those terrible wheels are there in all their glory, but I knew about those going in. Thankfully, Jeff had had it washed so all the little paint divots were apparent. there's no shortage of little dents and scrapes, as well as what looks like a really bad repair done on the driver's rear quarter panel. I knew about it going in, but it's not as clear from pictures. Oh well.. the price on the car is low enough I can over look a lot, especially if it's going to be pulling cone bashing duty.

She fired up and purred like a kitten, the Borla exhaust on it actually does sound pretty good.. too bad it's as heavy as it is. Time for the test drive. I just kind of wandered around this small town for a few minutes.. It was too far back to the freeway to really go that way, so I did the next best thing. Found a country road and opened up the taps.

Oh yes, all 300hp are there.

But how the hell did Nissan ever sell this car without a diff? Jesus it likes to light one up. this problem is probably easily compounded by the terrible tires that are on the back, but damn. In all the places to cut costs to build a base model, this is not where it should have been done.

Slowing down presented an additional challenge, as leaning on the brakes any harder than "grandma slowing to a light" yields some shake. Front rotors are probably warped. Add that to the list.

On the way back, being a bit more gentle (hard to do with the grins this car inspires), I start playing with the radio. Sounds.. okay.. distortion with mixed clarity.. start to mess with the balance and faders and find two out of 4 speakers are shot, and one of the ones that works isn't perfect. Oh well, it's got tunes at least. Add it to the list.

Returning to the dealership, I got curious. "This car is definitely lowered.. I wonder what's under it?" and started poking around. Expecting to find some springs, I'm actually pleasantly surprised to find a set of coil-overs. Unable to get enough of a read on them to know what brand they are, assume the worst. But, it may get me started in the season better than originally planned.

Time to do the deal.. I wandered back in to talk to Jeff, and began pointing out a few of the flaws I discovered in the test drive.. we talk a little bit, and he agrees to knock a few hundred bucks more off the purchase price, grins and says "I guess I can leave you with some gas money."

While we're waiting for the paperwork and title to be completed, we had a little chat. Jeff's a car guy... well.. truck guy. Really into his customs. Glad I can help support someone else's habit :)

Right after singing the deal, I shook Jeff's hand, walked out the door, threw my bag in the front seat, and tore that stupid rear window spoiler off.

[caption id="attachment_75" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Ahh.. That's much better.[/caption]

I paired my phone to the stereo, started the tunes, and began my journey back.

Getting to OKC

So the car I bought was just outside Oklahoma City in a town called Shawnee, OK.
The Plan was to fly out at about 6am on April 5th, and have the whole weekend to drive the car back if i needed, spending the night at a half way point, probably Kansas City.

Well, mother nature and Southwest Airlines shit all over that plan.

Thursday morning at work, I got an email informing me that my flight was canceled. What? Not a "hey, here's some other flights.." or ".. we're re-booking you..", Just a friendly "Nope." I immediately called southwest, and their only option to get me there for Friday, was to fly out Thursday night. Ugh.. add another night in a hotel to the bill. But with weather fast approaching, it looked like this was the only way to land on the only remaining business day that week, and I wanted to make sure banks and services were open and available encase something happened with the sale.

So I almost Immediately left work to go get my bank dealings done, pack,  and pick up the supplies that I originally had all afternoon and evening to complete (I had already planned to take a half day). Commence blitzkreig mode. Rushed home for lunch, threw a handful of shirts socks, and underwear in with my laptop and headed to the banks.

A few hours later my bank work was done, and I actually had some spare time, so I wound up getting a lift back to to my office to wrap up a few things. Perk of this is that Karl wouldn't have to fight traffic and snow to drop me off at the airport, and my office is right across the street from a light rail station that will happily take me all the way to the airport for $2.

Right now at the MSP airport, they continue to (somehow) claim that the government shutdown in NOVEMBER is still causing longer than average security checkpoint times, and are recomending the full 2.5 hours to get through security. Having not flown through the Humphrey terminal (terminal 2) in over 20 years, i opted to follow their advice instead of risking it.. so i got to the airport with what would have been about 2 hours to spare... to find out i had closer to 3 hours to spare.

Of course, the flight had been delayed, and i didn't find out until I actually got to the airport as the last 10-20 minutes of train ride on the light rail are all underground. Damn. Oh well. I plopped down and had some dinner at the only nice restaurant in terminal two, and a few drinks.

Finally, around 8pm We managed to depart... Stuck in a middle seat between two fat dudes. Thanks a lot southwest. Super happy with your "Cattle Call" boarding method.. then we had to De-Ice, and wait in line. We didn't get off the ground until 9:10. I keep crossing my fingers that I'll make my connection in Denver.. that it too will be delayed enough that i'll make it.. but there's no wifi on this plane to check.

We land in Denver at 11PM, and they announce that there are only 3 connecting flights they've made. LA, Pheonix, and... Oklahoma! Looks like I made it with some time to spare. The flight didn't leave until midnight.

Denver Airport.. WHY U BARS ALL CLOSE?

When it's all said and done, I landed in OKC at 12:50.. to get to my airport hotel by 1:15 for a few hours of sleep. I'm supposed to be picked up by the guys from the dealership at 9am.