cars – Patrick's Journal

Finally, a Car

My parents finally got a car, as I alluded to in the last post. To make a long, rambling story a bit shorter, a month or so ago my dad mentioned he found some extra money and he was interested in a larger down payment on whatever car he decided to buy. For a little while, we were thinking of leasing, but I think it starts to make less sense as your down payment increases. Plus shopping for a lease is a lot harder than shopping for what is essentially a cash deal. So I took another look at cars that might fit our criteria and I stumbled on the Mazda 6.

I, like a lot of people evidently, kind of forgot the 6 existed. Mazda has sold about 30,000 a year for the last five years or so. During the same time, they sold about five times as many CX-5s. Mazda considers the 6 their flagship though, and it shows. A few weeks ago my mom and I went to a local Mazda dealer to drive a new 2021 Mazda 6 Carbon Edition.

The Carbon Edition includes the same equipment as the Grand Touring Reserve trim, but adds exclusive colors for the body, wheels, and interior. The GTR trim is ridiculously well equipped; it’s probably easier to link to the brochure than list everything here. The exterior is very attractive, and the interior is even better.

We drove it and really liked it. The engine is a turbocharged 2.5-liter four cylinder, and while it isn’t super fast, it’s quick and very responsive. The transmission is probably the best automatic I’ve ever driven. It keeps the lock-up clutch engaged almost all the time, it doesn’t hunt for gears, it doesn’t downshift unless you prod the accelerator, but when you do it downshifts directly, with no hesitation. The new one we drove stickered at around $32,000, which was a bit much, but I think a good value if you have to have a new car. The one word I would use to describe this car is “refined.” Totally unlike older Mazdas. I set out looking for a used one within a reasonable distance from home.

I found a few from dealers in northern New Jersey and one from a dealer in Maine. We eventually got the one in Maine because it was the best overall combination of price and miles it seemed, plus it was white. And a really nice metallic white at that, called Snowflake White Pearl Mica. The interior was black, which is a good-enough color, but way better than the white that was also offered.

We got a 2018, but this 2021 model looks identical

I drove it home from Maine, a trip of about four and a half hours. It’s a great car to drive. Very comfortable, plenty of passing power, adaptive cruise control, a heads up display, and auto-dimming mirrors; it makes for a great highway car. At the same time, the tight and eager steering and suspension make it fun to drive on curvy roads, too. I really can’t say enough good things about it. A few items aren’t my favorite, but they’re the typical Japanese car things and aren’t really worth talking about.

It’s finally done, for now at least, and my mom is very happy with the new car (especially the heated steering wheel). I think this car will end up being a good choice, with a great combinati0n of style, speed, comfort and reliability that probably couldn’t be matched with the Genesis and Lincoln models we were previously interested in.

Finally an Update on the Triumph

I promised to post an update on my Triumph (named Nigel) just about a month ago. I’ve made some great progress, and this time I remembered to take some pictures.

In the last update, I managed to get the car running, but only with the choke on. This seemed to point towards a vacuum leak, but I couldn’t find a strong one. Using the ol’ spray some carb cleaner all over the place method, I learned the spacers between the carburetors and intake manifold weren’t making an airtight seal. I ordered new spacers and gaskets, and that actually made a big difference. Along the way I also removed the EGR system, disconnected the vacuum retard on the distributor and the bypass valves on the carburetors. I may reinstate the bypass valves after some driving.

If you know what to look for, you’ll notice the absence of an EGR system and the addition of an oil catch can. The heater valve is new, replacing an old leaky one. The stock air filters are on, but I’d like to replace them with something aftermarket. I know this car came with some oval shaped foam ones, but I have to find them, if I didn’t throw them away.

At the same time, I discovered the vent port on the rocker cover was spewing smoke into the carburetors, upsetting the airflow and causing difficulty with keeping the engine running. I rerouted the engine fumes into an oil catch can, but I may try to put this system back to stock in the future. The catch can doesn’t catch everything, and smoke still comes out of it. I think this is probably a sign that the piston rings could use replacement, but we’ll see how it goes. I’d like to kick that can as far down the road as I can. I’ve read that filling the engine oil to the top mark on the dipstick may in fact overfill the engine, so I’m going to try putting somewhat less oil in when I change it.

I also advanced the ignition timing quite a bit, enough to be off the scale on the crank pulley, and that made the biggest difference in the engine’s ability to run normally. Whether the timing is actually about 26° BTDC, I don’t know. The crank pulley may not be correct anymore. I’m hoping the timing works on the road, because the engine has never run this well or been this easy to start before. Reports on the TR6 forums suggest that this timing will probably be fine, but it varies car to car.

Moving to the other side of the engine, you can see the new wiring for the electric fan.

The wires could use a little organization, but they get the job done. The rocker cover leaks of course, but I’m going to leave it and see how bad it is. I may add a bead of RTV silicone under the gasket if it’s too leaky.

The bundle of wires below the radiator are for the fan controller, which works wonderfully. Part (or maybe all) of the reason it wasn’t working was because I had it wired wrong. I may not have needed the new temperature sensor, but it’s a lot more elegant than shoving a probe into the radiator fins. The only problem with it is the fan uses a lot of electrical power. With the engine idling, there’s barely enough power to run the ignition system and the fan, so the engine comes close to stalling. I just had the original alternator (a 40 amp unit I think) rebuilt, so I don’t want to replace it now, but I might next season. There are plenty of higher output options for the TR6.

Today I decided I’d see if a polish and wax would wake up the paint at all. I had mixed results, but no parts are worse than before.

The right front portion and the hood is slightly better, but not great. The right rear is actually not terrible. The trunk has a couple spots I need to grind down and hit with primer soon.

The vertical surfaces of the left side however, came back pretty nicely.

Just like the engine could probably use a rebuild, the body needs a repaint. A good paint job will be out of my budget for the foreseeable future though. Plus I don’t know what color I’d paint it.

The interior isn’t in amazing shape either, but it stays put together. I need to get carpet some day and replace the trim near the center control knobs.

The car just needs a tail light socket and it’ll be ready for inspection. That and an a few other parts should be in tomorrow. I have new engine mounts already that need to be installed in the next couple weeks. My latest order includes new front shocks and wheel bearings, plus parts to help replace the half shaft universal joints. I’ve had the joints themselves for a while now. I need to replace the rear shocks and springs too (especially with the new exhaust, the mufflers hang really low), but they’ll have to wait a little while.

I Got the Triumph Running

It’s time for an update, and it’s a good one. After a surprisingly short amount of work, I got the Triumph running, and running somewhat better than I expected. I regret not taking any pictures during the process, but it wasn’t really that exciting. I have a few things to address before the car is road-ready, but they shouldn’t present much trouble.

The first thing I did was remove the alternator and take it to a local place for a rebuild. Last time I was working on the car, I hooked up a jump pack backwards and smoke came out of the alternator. After taking it off and spinning it, I found the bearings a little stiff, so it was probably time for a refreshing anyways.

Next, I replaced the head gasket. I figured the gasket needed replacing due to a compression test from the last time I worked on the car. All the cylinders had compression, but it was low and very inconsistent. I expected to need most of the day to prep the head for removal; in fact, it took barely over an hour. I was ready to remove the head at around 11:30am, but no one was around to help me (with both manifolds attached it probably weighs 70-100 pounds). So I decided to work on something else I’ve been meaning to get to.

I’ve wanted to remove the engine-powered cooling fan and replace it with an electric fan for quite a while. I’ve had a fan and a controller kit, plus an engine fan eliminator kit ready to go for a few years. While waiting for my wife to get home to help with the head, I went ahead with the electric fan installation. The fan I bought was too thick to use as a puller behind the radiator, but luckily it was reversible, and thus easily mountable on the front of the radiator. I used the supplied zip ties to mount the fan to the radiator, and then connected the controller. After getting the car running, I discovered two problems with the controller: one, connecting it to the ignition coil doesn’t provide enough power, so I’ll probably connect it straight to the battery; two, the included push-in probe that sticks in the radiator fins sucks and doesn’t with with my radiator. I ordered a screw in replacement that I’ll put in a metal tee in the upper radiator hose.

I still had some time leftover, so I gave the carburetors a quick clean up and refresh and bought some supplies like coolant and a battery.

Once my wife got home, we took the head off, and to my surprise the gasket appeared to be in fine shape. I was expecting a missing chunk or something like last time. The block appeared in good shape also, and so did the head and all the valves. I don’t have a straight edge, so I didn’t check flatness, but I don’t think it’s an issue; I’ve never had coolant and oil mixing. I put the new gasket on and we set the head down on it. The next day I took maybe two hours or so to button it up.

Once everything was bolted together and filled up and plugged in, it was time to fire up the car. It took maybe half an hour of trying to get the car started, and when it did finally get going, it would only stay running with my foot holding the throttle open slightly. Yesterday, I mostly fixed the hard starting problem by adjusting the choke, which wasn’t doing anything at all. Now the car will run unattended, but only with the choke on. That seems to point to some kind of vacuum leak. I tried to track one down last time, but to no avail. Currently, my top potential culprits are the EGR valve, which I plan on eliminating, or the rocker cover, which is kind of out of shape. I plan to address that with a bit of RTV silicone. Hopefully that will take care of things and I can get the car registered and on the road in a week or two. I’ll be sure to add some pictures to the next post.

Getting the Triumph Back on the Road

After five years of sitting, I’ve decided it’s finally time to get my 1974 Triumph TR6 running and back on the road. In 2016 (I think), I had it running after repairing a damaged head gasket. That fix only lasted a handful of miles. I did a compression test at the time, and determined another failed head gasket is likely the problem. I think they keep blowing because the engine overheats. The radiator is full and the water pump is good, so I think the ignition timing is the culprit. To cover all the bases, I have a 160° thermostat to put in to keep things cooler.

It took so long because I haven’t had the right combination of money and time until now. About a year ago, with pandemic benefits coming in, I bought almost everything I needed to get the car going. I couldn’t get rocker shaft studs though, so the project was put on hold again. I rounded up the remaining parts today and ordered them. Hopefully they’ll be in by next week. In the meantime, I need to get the alternator rebuilt, which a local company can probably handle. I’ll be dropping it off tomorrow.

Once the parts are in, the whole thing should probably only take a few hours, potentially spread over two or three days. I have a vacuum gauge to accurately set the ignition timing now, so hopefully I can avoid overheating this time.

Finally Got My Car Fixed

Earlier this summer, and in fact starting in the late spring, a bunch of warning lights popped up on my car out of nowhere. A quick scan with my bootleg copy of Rheingold ISTA showed me there was poor/erroneous signal coming from the right rear wheel speed sensor. I couldn’t clear the code, which led me to believe there was probably an open circuit somewhere, even though no trouble codes from the car explicitly said that.

I started by swapping the rear wheel speed sensors from left to right and vice versa, hoping that the problem would be a cheap and easy to fix sensor. Unfortunately, that was not the case. I wanted to check the tone ring for the sensor next, despite it being unlikely that a damaged tone ring would cause an unclearable code.

On this car, a 2008 BMW 535xi, the tone ring is built into the wheel bearing, and you can’t see it without taking the axle out of the bearing. I knew it would be some work to get everything apart enough to look at the tone ring, so I figured for $50 or so, I might as well replace the bearing while I was there. I watched a couple videos on removing the bearing from the car, but I think all of the featured cars were automatics, and mine is manual (fairly rare in an E60). You would think that wouldn’t have anything to do with the rear axle and wheel bearing. You’d be wrong. On the manual cars, the axle is an extremely tight fit into the hub of the bearing. Every other car I’ve worked on, the fit has been tight, but loose enough to push the axle in and out by hand if it’s new and lubed up. On the manual E60s, it’s so tight I had to buy a puller to rip the bearing out of the spindle. There’s probably a special tool to install the axle, but I don’t have one, so I slammed it into the concrete floor of my driveway a few times. This whole thing turned into a multi-week saga because of the weather, waiting for parts multiple times and my constantly fluctuating levels of motivation. My car was on jack stands in the driveway for about three weeks. And at the end of it, I didn’t fix anything. The lights were still on. If I knew how huge a pain this job would be I wouldn’t have done it. On the other hand, now that I’ve done it once, I could do it much quicker in the future.

Next, I decided I wasn’t interested in fixing the car myself. I tried a used ABS module because it was cheap and quick. This didn’t fix anything either. I knew there was likely an open circuit between the right rear wheel speed sensor and the ABS module, but I thought that I didn’t have the right tool to probe the tiny pins on the electrical connectors, and I didn’t want to run new wires down the length of the car. The shop I took the car to seemed more interested in fixing minor or nonexistent problems than diagnosing and repairing the ABS problem. So that was $100 and change down the drain.

I finally got around to diagnosing the problem myself with some help from some male to male jumper wires for hobby electronics. It turned out they’re just the right size to fit into the tiny pins on the electrical connectors. I quickly discovered an open circuit on one of the wires going from the sensor to the ABS module. Yesterday, I finally got around to replacing the wire, and it fixed my problem. At first, on the ABS light was extinguished, but after quickly calibrating the yaw rate sensor, they all disappeared. I took the car for a test drive, and everything seems normal now. The next step is to get a fresh inspection sticker for the car, and then hopefully I’m done with fixing it for a while. I do want to do an all wheel drive service, which I have the fluids for, but I really need a lift for it. I’ll have to see if my friend with the shop could lend me some lift time for it.

My car still isn’t fixed unfortunately. I got the correct axle for it and installed it without too much trouble. It’s driveable now at least, but the ABS, stability control and brake warning lights remain on. I tried recalibrating some settings with ISTA on my laptop without success. The only thing I’ve managed to do is make the turn signals stop self canceling. The steering angle sensor now does not work. I find it unlikely that it’s dirty (a common problem on E60 and E90 BMWs) because the warning lights started out of the blue one day. Typically, a dirty sensor causes the lights to come on occasionally and the lights can be cleared. I’m starting to suspect the SZL, or steering column module, is faulty. It’s a little too expensive for me to take a shot at just popping a used one on for a test though. Tomorrow, I’m bringing the car to a local independent shop to see what they can tell me. I’m hoping it doesn’t take too much work, and thus time and money, to ferret out the problem.

On the brighter side, I bought a random-orbit polisher and polished and waxed the car this weekend. It looks ridiculously shiny. I’m very happy with the result, even though the car is silver, which doesn’t show the shine as well as a darker color. I’ll definitely keep up on the waxing because it looks so good. Tomorrow I’m going to clean out the interior so the mechanics don’t think I’m a total slob.

Here’s an update on a little bit of everything:

The computer stuff is working great. The TV set up seems to be working just fine, despite its Rube Goldbergian nature. In fact it’s probably working even better than the old set up. With the old set up, I’d have to restart the living room computer (containing the TV tuner) occasionally and often when I’d be getting comfortable in bed for the night. So far, no restarts of the cetonproxy virtual machine have been required. I suspected network performance might be degraded by having a network TV tuner, but it has not been impacted at all. I’ve been acquiring more TV shows and movies from a variety of sources and Jellyfin handles them with no trouble. I’m sure my system isn’t the sleekest out there, but it gets the job done for me. I’m sure I’ll make more adjustments in the future though.

On the car side, things are finally starting to return to normal. My car has been on jack stands in the driveway for two or three weeks now. I’ve been having a problem with erratic and incorrect readings from the right rear wheel speed sensor. I swapped the sensor with the left side and had no change. I decided to replace the right rear wheel bearing because it contains a magnetic wheel that the sensor reads to generate a signal. It’s not possible to see this ring without taking the bearing out of the spindle, so I decided for $50 or so, I might as well replace it if I take it out. So I got the new bearing installed in the span of a day, but had trouble putting the axle into the bearing. It’s an extremely tight fit, which I think is normal for my type of car. I tried hitting it cup portion of the axle with a hammer and pry bar to drive it into the bearing, but I poked a hole in that cup. So I need an axle. I took a chance on one labeled for an automatic version of my car for only $60. The flange on the differential side was 10mm too small to bolt up. So I sent it back and spend about triple the price on one that should fit my manual car. It should arrive by the end of the week I hope. I also hope it slides into the bearing easily like the automatic axle.

In the meantime, the air conditioning in my wife’s car quit working. I bought a set of manifold gauges to see what was going on inside the system. The gauge reading led me to suspect a broken expansion valve. My initial plan to remedy this was to have a local shop discharge the AC, then I would replace the valve myself, and go back to have the system recharged. I called a shop and they said it would cost $120 to do that. Way more than I was hoping to spend. So I decided to buy a vacuum pump and a few pounds of refrigerant for about the same price and do it myself. After draining the refrigerant, I set about replacing the valve. I was hoping I’d be able to take the valve out under the hood where the AC pipes go in and out of the cabin. Unfortunately, whoever at Honda designed that hole made it a few millimeters too small to get the valve out through it. So what could have been a half hour job took several hours (I did stop for breaks a few times). I had to remove the glove box, the cabin fan and a couple more pieces of plastic to take out the evaporator and then replace the expansion valve. Installation was the reverse of removal. Happily, the new valve did the trick, and the AC works again. I don’t think it’s quite as good as before though. With the car stopped in 90 degree heat, the air is cool but not cold. Moving along it’s fine. I’m so glad to have a car with working air conditioning again.

That’s it for now I guess. Computer things have been pretty static lately. I’m thinking about getting a Minecraft server going. I never really got into Minecraft back in the day, but I really want to. I’m usually a fan of open-ended games like Cities Skylines or No Man’s Sky, but maybe Minecraft is too open-ended. I did install a shader and neat texture pack, which makes a huge difference in the visuals. Maybe I’ll have to see if my brother can help me get into it.

Car Shopping

In the past, my parents haven’t really done car shopping. They buy a 4-ish year old car and keep it until it dies, which is fine. The problem comes when the car dies. They scramble to buy a car as soon as possible, and they’re stuck with whatever is on local dealer lots that week. My dad pays for the cars and he has refused to get an automatic since forever. This further limits the potential purchases.

It’s about time for my mom to get a car. She has a 2007 Saab 9-5 wagon, with the very rare manual transmission. It’s an alright car, but it has close to 180,000 miles and it’s getting creaky. Last summer, I had to replace the rusted power steering lines, which was an enormous job. Not long after, I tried to replace the rear shocks. When I tried to undo the bolts securing them to the car body, one bolt broke, and the welded nut for another started spinning. I decided to not risk going any further. The car gets from A to B and is reliable, but it’s getting old. Not to mention, it’s a Saab, so while parts availability isn’t totally awful right now, no one knows when the parts will dry up.

Because cars are my life, I decided we should go car shopping. Even if they wanted to wait until a car drops dead, at least they’d have the test driving part of the process done, and maybe they could take some extra time to shop around for a good price on a car they actually want.

I put together a list of cars to look for. My mom’s one must-have feature is a heated steering wheel. It’s actually not a rare item these days, but it’s often locked away in a high trim level or options package. She wants something comfortable and soft, so I decided we should look at larger sedans. She’s open to an SUV type thing, but I haven’t found any that fit the price range. My dad finally OK’d an automatic transmission this time, so that opens up a ton of options.

So here’s what we looked at:

Lincoln MKZ

The first thing we drove was a 2017 Lincoln MKZ. Actually, we drove two of them; one four-cylinder and one six-cylinder, both in the Reserve trim. It’s a pretty nice car. Just look at it. It looks great. The leather was much better quality than I was expecting, as were the rest of the interior materials. Most reviews seem to deride it as a tarted-up Ford Fusion. Yes, it’s on the Fusion platform, but it’s a very different car inside and out. Thanks to the Fusion platform, it’s a decent size car on the outside, but kind of tight inside. The center console in the front is huge, and head room in the back seat is in short supply. The standard 2-liter turbo four-cylinder engine is adequately powerful, but kind of coarse like most four-cylinders. The optional 3-liter twin-turbo V6 however, is a lot of engine. It puts out 400 horsepower and 400 ft-lbs of torque. It’s probably too much engine for the car, but it’s more fun than you’d expect from a Lincoln. Prices are excellent too. A Reserve trim four-cylinder with 20,000 to 30,000 miles can be had for not much more than $20,000 and a V6 for maybe $25,000.

BMW 5 Series

Next up was a 2016 BMW 535i xDrive. My mom and I were both thoroughly whelmed by the car. It was fine. It’s a good car, but not really all that interesting, which I guess is the point of a big German car. It was exactly what we expected.

Subaru Outback

After that, we checked out a 2017 Subaru Outback 3.6R, in the Limited trim. It was actually really good. I can see why they sell as many as they make, if not more. It was quiet and comfortable and well laid out inside. The trunk is huge, of course. The back seat is decently sized. My mom wasn’t expecting to like it as much as she did. Our one hang-up on the car is the CVT transmission. Subaru has been using them for a while and they don’t seem to have a bad reputation, but I still don’t feel totally confident in them. I’d feel a lot better with a regular automatic. The six-cylinder engine in this car is neat because it’s a boxer layout, but it just wheezes out 256 horsepower. Toyota gets 300 with 100cc less displacement. It’s still better than the four-cylinder that wheezes out a paltry 175 horsepower. I don’t know how Subaru gets so little power out of so much engine.

Cadillac CTS

Later that day we checked out a 2016 (I think) Cadillac CTS. I could only find a four-cylinder model nearby, but it turned out not to matter. Neither of us really liked it. The engine was unrefined for the class of car, but it felt more powerful than I expected. The shifter was positioned oddly. The fit and finish of the materials in the car wasn’t great; several adjacent seams in the dashboard stitching didn’t line up correctly. Not what you want to see in a car that originally cost close to $60,000. But worst of all were the center stack controls. They’re all capacitive touch buttons, and they’re mounted on a springy board. It’s difficult to use and doesn’t feel very nice. We crossed this car off the list before the test drive was over.

Genesis G80

Remember the Hyundai Genesis? Yeah, no one else does either. It grew up into its own brand. And just look at it. This is one of maybe a dozen or so cars I’d buy just to look at. I think it’s a styling masterpiece. It’s bold enough to stand out right now, but conservative enough that it’ll still look good in 20 years. Plus, it’s rare. Like, really rare. They sold under 20,000 G80s in the US for 2017, and under 10,000 the next year. I was surprised to see one close to home, and it was a V8 no less. That car was great to drive. The inside looks just as good as the outside. It has the best cooled seats I’ve ever used. They get cold, but make hardly any noise. The V8 engine is perfect for the car. It’s effortless, and makes a great noise, one you might not expect from this kind of car. The only drawback is the price. The one we looked at was being advertised for$36,000. There’s also a V6 model, which we drove the other day. It’s 85% as good as the V8. Other than the engine, the V6 we drove was identically equipped to the V8. The V8 is certainly better, but probably not $10,000 better.

For now, the G80 is at the top of the list, followed by the MKZ, then the F10 BMW 5-series and the Subaru Outback. I’m going to try to get my dad to drive the G80 later this week to see if I can convince him that it’s worth a little more money over the MKZ.

So I discovered another capital region car show the other day, and just in time. For this season, I’ve been trying to attend as many car gatherings as possible. I’ve probably spent most of my car show time at the Hemming’s Cruise-Ins in Bennington, Vermont. The last one of those was Thursday, so I was looking for other shows to attend around the area. Luckily, I stumbled upon a Cars and Coffee type event dubbed Cars and Caffeine just a couple days before it was scheduled.

I don’t know how I hadn’t heard of this event before, because it’s pretty large. A couple of blocks of River Street in Troy are closed down and there is a diverse collection of cars displayed on the street. I believe this event is hosted by a custom shop on River Street called 1945 Speed and Custom. They had their shop open and it seems that, like the show, they work on a diverse array of cars.

I only got a couple digital pictures worth sharing, but I went through a roll of Fuji Superia too, so I’ll have to see how those came out later this week.