Warm Weather Wrenching

"punkgoose17" (punkgoose17) 03/18/2018 at 23:10 • Filed to: Saturn Ion, Hyundai Elantra, 2004 Saturn Ion, 2005 Hyundai Elantra

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It reached somewhere around 59 degrees today here in Pittsburgh, and my wife’s Saturn needed an oil change. The Saturn got washed, I tried to fix the leak in the A pillar, and an oil change.

2004 Saturn Ion

I took the Saturn Ion’s roof trim piece off above divers door and tried to look where it may be leaking. Looking for an apporpriate glue in the house I tried “tacky glue” along the foam seal and windshield. It ended up being elmers glue I was looking for something like rubber cement gluey and rubbery. I will see how it works next winter because that seems to be when it leaks. I think it has to do with ice freezing and thawing. I don’t know exactly where the water is entering. I also tried to revitalize the foam rubber door strips with some hotel room lotion. I will see if this works... It seems like lotion pulls the dirt and adds moisture. I don’t know where I got this idea about 10 years ago, but I finally tried it.

Next I worked on my car. I bought a new battery, changed the air filter, cleaned the engine bay, and tried to change the spark plugs. I bought the car with 186,000 miles on it. Changed the oil and put 3,000 more miles on it. I spun the car at 4:00 am in the wet with bald tires. No damage to anything, but it was scary. Since then the car has been off the road. I got new wheels since the steelies are super rusty, I also have been trying to do some rust repair. The air filter and plugs thankfully were not factory original, but the plugs look nasty. The crush rings for the spark plugs may be stuck to the head. Hopefully tomorrow I can get some tools to check.

Old vs New Spark Plugs

Also, on the list of things to do is clear up the headlights. I ran out of clean rags and energy today. Here is a now/current pic.

2005 Hyundai Elantra passenger side headlight

2005 Hyundai Elantra driver’s side headlight

Here is an engine pic with the plastic cover off after trying to clean it.

2005 Hyundai Elantra engine

I am looking forward to having my own car again. I could not find tons of things toady e.g. the Gojo, WD 40, big flat screwdriver, and extending magnet. That is all for my near noob level wrenching. Lesson learned today if a car may be off the road for a long while disconnect the battery.

Jayvincent > punkgoose17 03/18/2018 at 23:20

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Lotion probably works OK for reviving door seal rubber, Armor-all is the best, but WD-40 can work too (if you can find it! it’s always missing from my garage shelf, too). Patience and electric drill will clear up your headlights (I always go with the $20 kit from your favorite auto-store, or check the various internet videos claiming success with toothpaste, baking soda and magic beans). Either way, keep posting, because that’s what keeps OPPO alive!

Clown Shoe Pilot > punkgoose17 03/19/2018 at 00:58

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I recently restored some lights on a 2003 Honda Element that looked about like yours. I used the 3M kit that I got at O’Reilly. It’s 3 different grades of sandpaper (2 dry, 1 wet) and a couple of magic wet-naps and it works GREAT. The lights look like new. All you need is 30ish minutes (plus magic wet-nap dry time) and a drill that’ll do about 1500 rpm.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > punkgoose17 03/19/2018 at 10:09

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The Land Rover people really seem to like “creeping crack cure” for mystery leaks. My understanding is it is a fairly thin sealant that “creeps” into the source of the problem and then sets. No experience myself.

Related, with a leaking a-pillar, have you considered it could be your sunroof drain(s)? Seems like those are almost always routed through the a-pillar and can cause all sorts of problems if they’re clogged or the tubes are damaged.

punkgoose17 > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 03/19/2018 at 10:17

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I did consider the sunroof drain. I opened the sunroof and looked in the tray. I could not find signs of a clog. I also looked for the exit to the drain. I will need to find a diagram of the drain and its routing to investigate this more.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > punkgoose17 03/19/2018 at 10:22

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Ooooooor just dump a pitcher of water in there and see what happens!

punkgoose17 > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 03/19/2018 at 10:25

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You are right. I found a how-to. It sounds exactly like the drain hose popped out of its fitting.

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > punkgoose17 03/19/2018 at 10:33

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Ouch. Hopefully not too much of a job? On the LR you have to drop the headliner, among other things, and it is just a pig of a job.

punkgoose17 > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 03/19/2018 at 10:48

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There are 4 hoses and drains. Access to the hoses seems easy. Accessing the front 2 drains seems difficult. The weather looks bad for the next week, so I will try and reconnect the 1 hose tonight and worry about the rest later.