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5 minute(s) of a 718 minute read
8-8-2011
Thanks Guys...Damned lights cost me a small fortune though...
Hey gang...
Sorry for the delay getting back on here...I have barely been on the forums at all lately...With the US economy being the way it is, I work harder to keep my income up, fortunately, I am with a most solid and financially conservative company which has always spent our money wisely, and invested back in our business wisely...so, we are actually doing quite well, and we continue to grow through the attrition of dissatisfied customers from our competitors, who continue to buy and merge their companies in a haphazard manner...This creates havoc with integrating cultures, product lines and in particular, billing systems, which results in poor customer experiences and frequently, a lack of cash flow. We also grow our company, but we do it much more carefully, and we are quite picky about buying hurting competitors, therefore, we are able to manage ourselves much more effectively, and we are able to provide excellence in customer service...Anyway, as I mentioned, due to my position, I can still control my income because I am on commission, but it means more time working than before...No worries...I like what I do.
Anyway, enough on that...My car, updates. I have not had much time to work on it lately...plus I had to fix the only oil leak I have really experienced...I traced it to the oil level sensor, as I believe I mentioned elsewhere...I decided to order a used one because since I was going there, I wanted to take no chances that it might be the sensor, and not the more common culprit...The inner gasket. I thought I would buy a new one until I nearly crapped in my pants when I asked the dealer for a price...$500 for a new one...Ouch...Just to tell me when my oil level is too low...Very important though...So, I searcehd until I found a used one, and bought it for $40. A new gasket was less than $2. I changed it out today...drained the oil, and it looked most excellent, I could determine no filings in the oil either...Color was still dark green, as I am using the Brad Penn Green Break in motor oil right now...I want to point out a few things I noticed...
My oil sensor and the used one I bought were identical...But, mine was exceptionally clean, with virtually no residue build up on it because I am the second owner, and I have always changed my oil at 3,000 miles with Mobil 1. The previous owner had also maintained the car well.
The used sensor was in very good shape, but it had a lot of build up on it...This tells me the owner of that car did not change out his motor oil nearly as often as he probably should. I cleaned it up, oiled it up, installed the new rubber gasket, and installed it.
Another note was that I was able to twist the top pf my oil sensor back and forth in the aluminum housing a little bit...This is why I searched for another sensor, as I wondered if this would be a source for a small leak, as my oil leak was small, but defintiely a leak. I was unable to twist the top of the used sensor I bought, so this may indeed have been a factor.
I noticed the gasket on my sensor was a bit hard and brittle along the edges...I do not recall, bit this may have been the only gasket I neglected to change...most likely due to an oversight...
Oh well, done now.The car has new oil in it, and it is lubed up.
I had thought I had a partially stripped bolt hold for one of the bolts on the oil sensor, but, not so...All tightened up well.
I also had removed the rear upper plenum EGR block off plate that I use to house my external AEM 3.5 BAR MAP sensor to check that everything was correct there as the transmission was not shifting properly...I found that I had not initialized the MAP sensor in the new PCS ECM...Once I did that, the transmission shifted correctly. Only thing was one of the damned bolt holes stripped out...Luckily, I wqs able to find a slightly longer bolt and it torqued down properly...If not, I would have had to take the whole damn upper plenum off and Heli-Coil it...Whew! Fortune prevailed. So, I completed that as well.
Tomorrow, I will drain the coolant once again, remove the radiator, and add the new fan, as one of the new 14" cooling fans died on me...If this happens again, I will order SPAL's and install them.
I will post up another update when I get a moment this week. That should get me ready for the Dyno tune. We shall see.