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2
Well, I started to clean the summer rims today. They have never been cleaned, and have been used in winter. I squirted some Simple Green on them and scrubbed a bit. These are 'before' pics. After is better, but still not real good. And, I need new center H caps. The final cleaning might have to wait; the forecast for the next few days includes a chance of rain and/or snow. It was 45 today, so I could at least do a little.
The winter rims are actually cleaner, and it might make more sense to use them on the summer tires. But there's the matter of swapping 8 tires and trying not to pay for it.
The winter rims are actually cleaner, and it might make more sense to use them on the summer tires. But there's the matter of swapping 8 tires and trying not to pay for it.
2
Swapped winter for summer tires today. I finally cleaned the twin-spoke (summer) wheels. Better, a lot better really, but they are pretty much beyond cleaning on the inside. Had to use some 00 steel wool to remove a brownish/orange coloring on all 4. Then I applied some wax.
These are 'after' pictures.
It should be noted that the hood and fenders looked like that too up until I had the hood replaced and fenders repainted (above). Previous owner must have lived on a dirt road.
So, these would be better off as my winter wheels. But I don't feel like paying to have 8 tires swapped just for this. So it looks like I'll make that change when it's time to replace 4 of them, whenever that is.
Had to buy a 20-150 ft lb torque wrench today. This is the 2nd time I've swapped the tires on the car myself; last year I probably just used a breaker bar.
These are 'after' pictures.
It should be noted that the hood and fenders looked like that too up until I had the hood replaced and fenders repainted (above). Previous owner must have lived on a dirt road.
So, these would be better off as my winter wheels. But I don't feel like paying to have 8 tires swapped just for this. So it looks like I'll make that change when it's time to replace 4 of them, whenever that is.
Had to buy a 20-150 ft lb torque wrench today. This is the 2nd time I've swapped the tires on the car myself; last year I probably just used a breaker bar.
4
Started replacing speakers today. First stop - rear deck. Replaced with Rockford Fosgate r169x3.
Notice the difference in the size of the magnet!
I found out they are not 100% drop-in replacements. Only two of the four screw holes line up.
The covers are staying off for now, to see if I need to worry about those missing screws. That, and I'm not convinced they'll fit on without modifications.
And of course, one screw fell down somewhere so that's a rattle waiting to happen.
I haven't gone out for a ride yet, but my initial impression is they have much greater clarity. Not louder, just clearer.
Notice the difference in the size of the magnet!
I found out they are not 100% drop-in replacements. Only two of the four screw holes line up.
The covers are staying off for now, to see if I need to worry about those missing screws. That, and I'm not convinced they'll fit on without modifications.
And of course, one screw fell down somewhere so that's a rattle waiting to happen.
I haven't gone out for a ride yet, but my initial impression is they have much greater clarity. Not louder, just clearer.
5
Day 2 – the dashboard tweeters.
The new tweeters are JBL Club 750T units, and they came with an assortment of mounting brackets plus wiring harnesses. The wiring harnesses had some electronics covered in heat-shrink tubing right in the middle of the ~4-foot-long wire. I don’t know what’s there exactly, but I paid for it and the engineers obviously thought they are needed, so they were installed.
I was advised to get some backstraps to mount them, at $2 they hardly broke the bank but I’d later find out hot glue worked better.
But there was one kinda big problem – there were no wiring adapters for these speakers. I knew that when I bought the speakers so I had a few days to think of a solution.
After I removed the original tweeters, I found that I had, at most, 3 inches of wire to work with and the wire was anchored to something so I couldn’t pull any more out. Fortunately, it’s a socketed connection. Then there’s the fact that these are located at the base of the windshield. Cutting and soldering, or even (gasp) crimping just wasn’t going to happen here.
There is a way to deal with this, but it involves destroying the original speakers. No big loss there, so I cut the socket off of the old speakers and soldered my new wires to that socket! Problem solved!
Once the original speakers were removed, I had to determine which wire was positive. The original speakers are not marked, so my manual’s wiring diagram came to the rescue. By lining up the plug and socket, I could figure out which pin in the socket was positive and which was negative. I wrote that on the speaker magnet.
Bench time. I took the old and new speakers down to my sit-down bench in the basement, intended for electronics work like this. A soldering station, a lighted magnifying glass and related tools made this easy.
Pop the speaker out of the grille. Take a knife and scribe + and – on their respective sides of the plastic socket. Cut said socket off of the speaker, approximately at the blue line. A Dremel with a cut-off wheel works great here. Toss the capacitor (to the right of the socket here):
Then, solder your new wires on to the newly-liberated socket:
Mount the speaker inside the dashboard grille. These speakers came with a few different mounts and one happened to fit perfectly inside the round socket in the grille. A little hot glue and we’re done. Notice the big black thing of electronics on the wire. The finished product:
That ~4 feet of wire and the blob of electronics will fit in the space under the speaker in the dashboard. I just stuffed it all in there; maybe someday I’ll bother to properly tie off the wires somewhere.
Oh, how nice it is to be able to hear cymbal crashes, snare drums and other higher-pitched musical sounds with clarity. No more mush.
Doors are next, and I already know I will have problems there. Those new speakers don’t fit in the mounting brackets that are supposedly for this car. What I don’t yet know is, do the brackets fit the door?
The new tweeters are JBL Club 750T units, and they came with an assortment of mounting brackets plus wiring harnesses. The wiring harnesses had some electronics covered in heat-shrink tubing right in the middle of the ~4-foot-long wire. I don’t know what’s there exactly, but I paid for it and the engineers obviously thought they are needed, so they were installed.
I was advised to get some backstraps to mount them, at $2 they hardly broke the bank but I’d later find out hot glue worked better.
But there was one kinda big problem – there were no wiring adapters for these speakers. I knew that when I bought the speakers so I had a few days to think of a solution.
After I removed the original tweeters, I found that I had, at most, 3 inches of wire to work with and the wire was anchored to something so I couldn’t pull any more out. Fortunately, it’s a socketed connection. Then there’s the fact that these are located at the base of the windshield. Cutting and soldering, or even (gasp) crimping just wasn’t going to happen here.
There is a way to deal with this, but it involves destroying the original speakers. No big loss there, so I cut the socket off of the old speakers and soldered my new wires to that socket! Problem solved!
Once the original speakers were removed, I had to determine which wire was positive. The original speakers are not marked, so my manual’s wiring diagram came to the rescue. By lining up the plug and socket, I could figure out which pin in the socket was positive and which was negative. I wrote that on the speaker magnet.
Bench time. I took the old and new speakers down to my sit-down bench in the basement, intended for electronics work like this. A soldering station, a lighted magnifying glass and related tools made this easy.
Pop the speaker out of the grille. Take a knife and scribe + and – on their respective sides of the plastic socket. Cut said socket off of the speaker, approximately at the blue line. A Dremel with a cut-off wheel works great here. Toss the capacitor (to the right of the socket here):
Then, solder your new wires on to the newly-liberated socket:
Mount the speaker inside the dashboard grille. These speakers came with a few different mounts and one happened to fit perfectly inside the round socket in the grille. A little hot glue and we’re done. Notice the big black thing of electronics on the wire. The finished product:
That ~4 feet of wire and the blob of electronics will fit in the space under the speaker in the dashboard. I just stuffed it all in there; maybe someday I’ll bother to properly tie off the wires somewhere.
Oh, how nice it is to be able to hear cymbal crashes, snare drums and other higher-pitched musical sounds with clarity. No more mush.
Doors are next, and I already know I will have problems there. Those new speakers don’t fit in the mounting brackets that are supposedly for this car. What I don’t yet know is, do the brackets fit the door?
3
Day 3 – the door speakers.
Today’s exercise in speaker replacement went better than expected. Only one trip to the hardware store was needed, for self-drilling screws to mount the speaker adapters.
The speaker adapters that I thought would not work actually worked just fine. When I was test-fitting things last week, I didn’t realize the speakers were intended to sit on top of the adapter, not inside it. That was discovered today, and it made my day. No need to wait on the mail to deliver something!
My only (possible) issue is with the diameter of the speakers. The OEM speakers have a diameter of 17cm (6.69” for we Yankees) so I ordered two Polk Audio DB652 two-way speakers. They have a diameter of 6.5” so I thought they’d fit fine.
As I’d discover today, that assumption was a little off. The speaker adapters do not fit in the existing speaker mounting slots; you secure them with the self-drilling screws I had to get. Right there, that guarantees that the speaker won’t line up perfectly with the circular recess in the door card’s speaker grille. Then you have a speaker that’s just shy of ‘too wide’ and presto, you can have alignment problems. (For those reading this in the future, get 6” diameter speakers.) I didn’t have a problem on the passenger door, but the driver’s door card sticks out 1/8” or so on the corner closest to the speaker grille when previously it was flush with the steel. I have a few ideas on how to deal with that, but that’s for a later date.
The old speaker (left), new speaker and the adapter.
As with the rear deck speakers, notice the size difference in the magnets!
Today’s exercise in speaker replacement went better than expected. Only one trip to the hardware store was needed, for self-drilling screws to mount the speaker adapters.
The speaker adapters that I thought would not work actually worked just fine. When I was test-fitting things last week, I didn’t realize the speakers were intended to sit on top of the adapter, not inside it. That was discovered today, and it made my day. No need to wait on the mail to deliver something!
My only (possible) issue is with the diameter of the speakers. The OEM speakers have a diameter of 17cm (6.69” for we Yankees) so I ordered two Polk Audio DB652 two-way speakers. They have a diameter of 6.5” so I thought they’d fit fine.
As I’d discover today, that assumption was a little off. The speaker adapters do not fit in the existing speaker mounting slots; you secure them with the self-drilling screws I had to get. Right there, that guarantees that the speaker won’t line up perfectly with the circular recess in the door card’s speaker grille. Then you have a speaker that’s just shy of ‘too wide’ and presto, you can have alignment problems. (For those reading this in the future, get 6” diameter speakers.) I didn’t have a problem on the passenger door, but the driver’s door card sticks out 1/8” or so on the corner closest to the speaker grille when previously it was flush with the steel. I have a few ideas on how to deal with that, but that’s for a later date.
The old speaker (left), new speaker and the adapter.
As with the rear deck speakers, notice the size difference in the magnets!
Fixed all of the speaker issues today, except the driver's door mount.
And, I added a proper USB socket in the storage bin below the radio for my iPod interface. It's been on the to-do list for a few months now. Prior to this, it was connected by a 6' long USB extension cable that came out between the console and the passenger seat, that's a lot of extra cable to hide when you include the cable for the iPod. Now it's easily hidden.
It sticks out 1/2 - 3/4". It could not be flush-mounted since there's hardware behind where I drilled the hole in the cubby and the socket is about 2 inches long. Oh well, can't see it with the door open anyhow.
- Shortened the tweeter wires by about 2 feet, zip-tied them in place.
- Mounted the rear deck speakers properly, with 4 screws. It was easier to drill holes in the speaker frame than the rear deck, so that's what I did. Worked fine.
- Modified the rear deck speaker grilles so they mount normally now.
And, I added a proper USB socket in the storage bin below the radio for my iPod interface. It's been on the to-do list for a few months now. Prior to this, it was connected by a 6' long USB extension cable that came out between the console and the passenger seat, that's a lot of extra cable to hide when you include the cable for the iPod. Now it's easily hidden.
It sticks out 1/2 - 3/4". It could not be flush-mounted since there's hardware behind where I drilled the hole in the cubby and the socket is about 2 inches long. Oh well, can't see it with the door open anyhow.
Yay! I was able to get the 3M clear bra installed today. The local shop had an opening so for $175 I now have the 3M clear stuff on the fenders & hood. They could have done the bumper too, but that added quite a bit to the price so I decided against it. 8-mil thickness, ten year warranty I think.
Now I can drive through dust storms and 10 feet behind dump trucks with reckless abandon.
Now I can drive through dust storms and 10 feet behind dump trucks with reckless abandon.
2
As I was trying to track down what I think is the grinding sound of an unhappy bearing somewhere on the serpentine belt path, I came across this. Am I in to a new water pump? (I-4, 177,000 mi) It's always at the halfway point between min & max on the overflow tank, but I have noticed it never stays at max when I fill it up and never gets to min.
A close-up of the weep hole on the water pump:
Notice the 'wet' area between the red lines, bottom half of the water pump's pulley is visible:
It is not oil, though I do lose some. Toward that end, I put some flourescent dye in the oil yesterday and none of this area glows under UV light. I should get some coolant dye.
I initially thought my bad bearing was in the a/c compressor clutch but after removing the belt & letting things free spin, the a/c pulley spins quick & quiet. I think my culprit is the tensioner. The pulley on the tensioner wobbles a bit and doesn't seem to spin right.
A close-up of the weep hole on the water pump:
Notice the 'wet' area between the red lines, bottom half of the water pump's pulley is visible:
It is not oil, though I do lose some. Toward that end, I put some flourescent dye in the oil yesterday and none of this area glows under UV light. I should get some coolant dye.
I initially thought my bad bearing was in the a/c compressor clutch but after removing the belt & letting things free spin, the a/c pulley spins quick & quiet. I think my culprit is the tensioner. The pulley on the tensioner wobbles a bit and doesn't seem to spin right.
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