Of Major Happenings! [Contains Buick]

"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
08/17/2014 at 11:10 • Filed to: None

Just finished a 9-hour blitz (~6pm to ~4am) of work on my car and holy crap we got a lot done. And there's still stuff to do.

Tires

My rear-left is egg-shaped. My buddy with the lift says it's the worst tire he's ever seen, so that's nice. Can't believe how long I've been driving around on it.

We looked around but since my car has the lowly 15-inch wheels and not 16-inch wheels we couldn't find any suitable tires lying around the shop. Dang.

Guess I'll have to use Walmart site-to-store and get !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! so I can drive to university and back safely.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Suspension

Yeah, my air shocks have a leak now. Bugger. I did kind of work around it by disconnecting the body height sensor and shoving it to its lowest setting, forcing the air shocks to inflate fully. The result is MUCH stiffer rear suspension, a huge reduction in body roll, and a 1" lift to the rear of the car that gives it a bit of a muscle car/drag car stance. No pictures of that right now because it was too dark.

Exhaust

Welded my exhaust so it doesn't move around and slam into the bottom of the car when I go over bumps, and it now also exits the car! Yay! No shiny tips because beat-up rusty metal fits the aesthetic of the car much better.

Intake

My friend looked around and threw a K&N filter the size of my torso at me and said "try cramming that in your engine bay."

Okay.

First step was finding a new home for the PCM after removing the airbox. I put it back pretty much where it was, and bent up some coathangers and zip-ties to hold it in place. Three points to the frame, so it's sturdy as hell.

Because racecar

The filter fit PERFECTLY over the OE intake flexi-hose thing so there were absolutely no surprises there, and I hung it in place with a sling made out of some rubber I found lying around.

It works rather well. Not sure if there's any performance boost whatsoever, and it's definitely sucking in more hot air than cold air, but the intake noise is GLORIOUS and it did seem to pull harder at ~4500rpm.

Tail lights

Holy. Crap. This was a huge pain. Had to use a DEEEP socket, then try to dislodge the light assembly from the weatherstripping that was "sealing it" (lol) to keep it from leaking.

Two guesses how well that worked.

The left two tail lights were mostly filled with water. One of the bulbs was completely shattered and the other one disintegrated when I tried pulling it out. This resulted in about 2 hours of swearing and digging around with a dental pick trying to get the damn thing out. End result: two of the trunk lid lights work perfectly, and of the left two one of them KIND OF works, and one of them is a total loss and I need a new socket.

At least the corner tail lights work. And for those of you keeping track there are 8 brake lights, 2 reverse lights, and 2 license plate lights on this thing. That's why I haven't done an LED conversion yet.

Ok, there you have it. Last night was an interesting night and I still have a bit to do (is Walmarts auto service open on Sunday? I don't know how to mount a tire). Should be fun.

DISCUSSION (21)

CalzoneGolem > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
08/17/2014 at 11:18

Walmart should be able to mount a tire for you on Sunday. I would strongly suggest Craigslist for used tires over buying the shittiest new tire at Walmart. I just bought a set of 4 conti pros and got them mounted and balanced for ~$200.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > CalzoneGolem
08/17/2014 at 11:22

Been scouring Craigslist but 15" tires are impossible to come across. Closest thing I've seen are truck tires with a different sidewall ratio

dogisbadob > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
08/17/2014 at 11:25

Yes, Walmart's service is open on Sunday, but you may have to wait your turn a few hours, as the line can get long. Nothing wrong with those cheap Douglas tires. They're made by Goodyear.

KurtAKX > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
08/17/2014 at 11:26

I have no words.

Ok, I have a few. "That's really not the best possible way to mount a PCM"

That is all.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
08/17/2014 at 11:29

Mounting tires takes special equipment. If you can afford it, I suggest getting a different brand of tire, those are garbage and they tend to wear stupidly and quickly.It's usually worth it to spend another $30-40 per tire because you will make that money back by not having to replace the tire as early as with the cheap ones. Also be aware that when air suspension components develop leaks air pumps run more often. This usually leads to premature failure of said pump. I like your mod, I just want you to know you may have a dead air pump in your near future.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > KurtAKX
08/17/2014 at 11:35

Better than my friend's Velcro mount.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
08/17/2014 at 11:47

The air suspension 'fix' is just temporary until I can decide if I want to replace the shocks, keeping in mind the leak might be in the hose or pump itself or one of the fittings, or if I want to spend an extra $30 and get a Monroe conversion kit and have traditional suspension instead.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > dogisbadob
08/17/2014 at 11:47

It's amusing the varying opinions I'm getting about those tires

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > dogisbadob
08/17/2014 at 11:50

Hit or miss on those tires then? My sister-in-law pretty much only runs those and I don't think she's ever had a single one last more than 10k miles. Multiple different cheap cars, like dodge vans and old Subarus. All aligned by me. She is the opposite of an aggressive driver. A few of them have had separated belts causing dangerous bubbles, at least one blowout which she says was not caused by hitting anything, some minor bubbling causing impossible to balance vibrations, and lots of stupid tread wear. She has used these because she works for Walmart and gets a discount. Currently she has 30k miles on a set of cheap Firestones with no issues.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
08/17/2014 at 11:59

I figured, just wanted to give you a heads up. It probably is the shock though. IIRC therear air shocks for my 01 Seville a couple years were right around $130 from rock auto. I think I've only seen leaks from lines and fittings a few times, almost always caused by external interference (wrecks, poor routing, etc.) but I've replaced hundreds of air shocks/stuts.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
08/17/2014 at 12:03

New shocks from RockAuto are $80 for me, or $100 for the conversion kit. Probably gonna stick with air shocks because the ability to change ride height is really nice.

dogisbadob > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
08/17/2014 at 12:06

Practically ALL air shocks suck, whether in a Buick, a Panther, a Land Rover, or even a Lexus (Toyota). You're better off switching to regular shocks. If you're lucky, you can even get Bilstein shocks :)

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
08/17/2014 at 12:11

I would stick with air, that's really cheap.