I racked up just shy of 10,000 miles since my last oil change over 6 months ago, which meant it was time to do it all over again. The timing worked out perfectly to allow me to change all of my fluids before the weather got cold enough to make it an annoying task. For those who haven't been following along with my previous oil change posts, I use AMSOIL fluids in the engine, [...]
So I sold my steelies, along with the General Altimax Arctic winter tires that were mounted on them. I also sold the stock Michelin Primacys that were mounted on my stock STi wheels. Both of those sales netted me about what I needed to buy a new set of General Altimax Arctics for the STi wheels, so that I can look sharp during the winter months too! This means I'm running 215/45R17 winter tires, [...]
All good things must come to an end. I've hit 36,000 miles in this car, which marks the end of my 3 year/36,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty... only 23 months after I purchased the car. Of course, I still have the 5 year/60,000 mile powertrain warranty, but at my current rate, that will only last me another 15 months or so. That's what ~19,000 miles a year gets you! Anyway, I thought this warranty-ending milestone [...]
When talking to some folks regarding the Slambert Performance Twin-Hitch, they often mention that they "don't want to deal with the trouble of installing and uninstalling the hitch" all the time. I think some people think that it's a cumbersome thing to do, so I nabbed this video off of my dashcam to demonstrate just how easy it is. This is only a 4-minute-long video, and yet it begins with my pulling up to [...]
A broader post will follow shortly recapping the first 36,000 miles of ownership of this car from a maintenance and reliability perspective. That mileage marks the end of the bumper-to-bumper warranty period, so it seemed an appropriate point to stop and reflect. However, I wanted to separate this issue out into its own post to explain exactly what has gone on. I cannot recall exactly when this issue started to make itself apparent, but I want to [...]
I finally got around to installing a dash cam in my car. This is something I had originally meant to do right when I purchased the car, but priorities shifted and I never got around to it. Finally, after a few close calls recently, I decided to bite the bullet. There are several reasons I wanted a dash cam: The sports car effect. When you drive a sports car (much less one that has been [...]
'Tis a good day for a 30-second oil filter swap. Skokie, IL
If you've read my recent autocross blog posts, you'll know that one issue I've been having is that I've been contacting the pavement with the flaps during hard cornering. This doesn't happen during daily driving, but with the added grip of the RE71Rs, and the violent direction changes on course, I was occasionally slamming them into the ground. I did occasionally scrape them on steep inclines, or other severely uneven pavement during daily driving, [...]
So back when I installed my coilovers, I thought I didn't have any rubbing issues. That turned out to be slightly false. The reason I didn't think I had this problem, at first, is that the rubbing wasn't consistent. It depends on how the suspension is compressed based on the terrain the car is on. Consistent or not, though, it started manifesting itself randomly in various situations. I discovered that I was just barely [...]
At the end of this post is a summary of all of the major parts used for this project, including estimated prices and links, where possible. This is a project I've been working on occasionally for the past few months, but I wanted to wait until it was complete to write up a formal blog post about it. My plan for autocross (and eventually track days and such) was always to have a dedicated [...]