|
|
I seem to have a lot of automobile related material lately. If that's boring, please move on and I'll just have to work through it.
I've been getting grief from weird places for not putting up some more pictures of the new Mustang. These were taken a couple weeks ago on a wonderful warm and clear day out at the western edge of town. I realized as I was putting them up tonight that I've never done any interior shots or close-ups, something I'll have to fix in the future.
That should make some people happy (you know who you are).
The stiff ride and smooth cornering has proven to be even better than I expected. That said, when it's raining for the first time in a while and still slick, one needs to be a bit conservative about acceleration on freeway ramps. I got a wee bit carried away Friday morning coming home from Orange County. The car recovered quite nicely.
With the cloudy weather finally clearing up (it was a sparkling day), I went looking for someplace to drive that I hadn't tried before. I should have taken my camera, there were some awe inspiring vistas on my route.
My route wound south on Westlake/Decker to Mulholland Highway which I'd noticed on the map last night went all the way to the sea. It was a nice drive down, but I got stuck behind some 'pokes on Decker and had to follow some rather cautious bikers on Mulholland. After running a bit east on PCH, I made the turn north on Decker. I was taking it pretty easy (it's been a while since I've come up that way) until a bike arrived arrived on my butt. I eventually waived him by and then followed which made for a great couple miles of driving as he gradually stretched his lead. Then he bounced past another 20 MPH corner driver that I got stuck behind for a couple miles. All told, I had three wide open stretches on the ride up and enjoyed myself quite a bit.
Kurt pointed out that the fate of my well worn Civic was left up in the air. Rest assured, we still have it. It's a shared resource among the driving family for whomever needs it most (making a long drive? please take it). Through some quirk of life, I always seem to be in it when it's empty and we pass a gas station (I think the kids cars are always empty).
I'd been going on the assumption that I was going to be out of the car soon for some time and had sailed right on past the 120,000 mile dealer check up. Just the basics, mam! That had worked just fine until the last couple of weeks the car was mine. In those last couple of weeks, it developed a very nasty tap. Only when cold, and only when at low RPMs. Once it warmed up and was driven a bit, it mostly went away but it was unnerving none the less. I was thinking valves and large numbers floated through my head.
It went into the local Honda dealer right after my new car arrived and it wasn't nearly as bad as I feared. According to a fellow there, it sounded like a common problem for that generation. Most often a rod problem, relatively easy to fix early on as long as there wasn't any valve damage. Kinda pricey (cheap on parts, several hours of labor). In the end, it was a cracked valve cover. A bit pricey itself, but relatively easy to replace.
There were no other problems (that I had to pay for, they did have to retap the transmission drain plug) from the whole transfusion, rotation, inspection regimen. At 135,000+ miles the car runs quite well and once again sounds good, it has another 30K of tread and nothing is broken or needs attention. The boys are leaden of foot (I wonder where that comes from?), but as long as they pay attention (car's tell you when they are ill, you just need to notice) I see no reason we can't go 200K without major problems. Moving away from this kind of reliability was a consideration with the new car, but I wanted fun that couldn't be found there.
Posted by Dave at December 4, 2005 09:37 PM