mbrickell

Being from PA originally, I know that when someone says " some rust " on a 15-20 year old Japanese car in that state, you have to watch out. I don't see cars with nearly the rust issues out here in Kansas City that I did in PA. Of course, that was a while ago too. I'd be slightly cautious of an old PA Soob with some rust. But, for $500, you really don't have much to lose. Depends on how long you want to keep in on the road. Inspectable today could mean non in a year or two if it is bad enough now. I'd want to get up under the car and look at the critical stuff like suspension mounts and stuff like that. I've seen some scary structural rust on Subarus in my PA days...

Sounds cool. Pics needed. I remember when I had my Justy with a Yakima rack and bikes on it, the engine was so small that if I had a bunch of stuff on the roof it would significantly lessen my performance. At the time, I lived in central Kansas, and it was pretty windy a lot of the time. Fortunately for the 3-cyl, it was relatively flat. I do remember being on the highway driving into the wind with stuff on the roof and barely making headway! Cool workup sounds like you have.

If I was selling this kind of car on eBay, I'd probably start with no reserve and a ridiculous buy it now too, like this guy, as a joke. You never know, some idiot might do it. Can't hurt to ask. You won't get the money if you don't ask. That being said, for $6k, there better be dancing girls, a time travel device, the cure for cancer, and a box with the key to world peace in it that comes along with the car...

Eh, don't remember now, but was not cheap. Probably cost me $50-60 or so, again don't remember though, it was a year ago or so that I did it. In this case, it was a pretty decent car, it was my wife's, and I didn't want her to have any issues, so I did it right and spent more $$ than I would have on a POS that I was driving. I got Trans-X at the typical chain auto parts place I got the M1 ATF. It is in a metal can, blue and silver if I recall. Check the link I added to my above post for more good ATF info from the Volvo site I used to frequent. Good luck. Keep in mind that really, on an old car with lots of miles, the benefit from going to synth ATF will be small. The advantage of synth is that it does not break down with heat as quickly as regular ATF, it does not degrade as fast. When fresh, it will not produce some miracle on your car that suddenly it will shift smoother, run better, etc. I went synthetic because the Volvos were notorious for trans issues, and I was paranoid. In your case, you may just as well be served by doing a good flush with standard ATF and some trans-x. Synthetic might be a waste of $$ unless you have a good trans now and want to keep it that way for 75k more miles. Don't know how good your current slushbox is, or how many years you want to be driving the car down the road...

Don't know about the Lucas. In my experience, there is really no need for any additive other than good synth ATF. The only thing I have heard will actually work and buy you some time if your autobox is dying is Trans-X. I completely flushed my wife's Volvo's tranny out with like 15 quarts of mobil 1 synth, got ALL the old crap out, fluid was completely fresh, put a little trans-z in there with mostly M1 ATF, car drove like new and never a trans issue ( 850 turbos from mid 90's known for crappy autobox, no factory fluid change interval ). If I were you, some Trans-x, rest of it M1, you are rockin. I had a VW 412 ( no one on this board knows or cares, very obscure old VW, anyway... ) with a weak auto tranny, ran a bottle of transx in there, and it made a noticeable improvement. I had a Peugeot 504 diesel wagon, tranny was bad, nothing would help it, fluid came out like red-brown milk. Had to do a swap on that one. But, trans-x worth a try. The key is to get all the old crap out. There is risk involved with an old worn trans. If your fluid is full of debris now, that may be the only thing providing enough friction to drive the car. Putting in new more "slippery" fluid could actually make things go downhill if your trans is on the last leg and the debris in the fluid ( worn clutch particles ) was the only thing providing the last shred of friction to get things moving. So, it is known that if you are already so far along that trans death is inevitable, that a total flush could make things worse. FYI. If you are going to flush it and take the risk, ( small risk ), at least when I did it on the Volvo, I would fill the fluid, disconnected the ATF line at the cooler and ran a big clear tube to a container where I could watch the tube as I sat in and idled the engine. The second you see air in the tube, kill the engine. Refill, run for a few seconds, solid fluid flow, then air, then you kill it again. You go through this process 4 or 5 times until the fluid coming out is completely clean and fresh. This way, you know you have pumped ALL the crap out, and all the stuff in there is new. You are never running the pump long enough to hurt anything since you are shutting down the instant you see air in the clear hose. Have a big drain container, as you will go through a decent amount of fluid ( took me 12-13 quarts if I recall ) until you get total clear coming out. Again, this on a Volvo trans, ( aisin ), don't know the capacity of Soob trans... Here is some good info from a Volvo site I used to use regarding ATF, flushing, etc, that may be of use to you: http://au.geocities.com/ozbrick850/atfflushindex.html FWIW

me like. i think you can get the good hella euro spec 7" round lights too, i had them on my raider i used to have, much better lighting. i think auto barn carries them on the web if i remember right... personally, probably not room to mount it, but would be cool if you could do a third equally sized round light in the center. three equally sized big round lights in the front would wierd people out. yeah, here are the good hella lights that are a great upgrade to round light cars: http://www.autobarn.net/hel70479.html

would seem to make sense. hyper-advanced timing would mean octane more critical i would think. thinking more about it, considering that a car from the late 80's or early to mid 1990s probably has about 1000 times less computing power than a new car today, the sensitivity of an old turbo car to fuel octane is probably orders of magnitude greater than a new car. around here, you can get midgrade at 89 or 90, i would at least run that. the 96 volvo 850 turbo wagon my wife had said 90 or better now that i think about it...

Just remember, an old saying: There is fast, good, and cheap. Pick two. For some reason just thought of hearing that a long time ago.

Well, in theory, since higher octane means the fuel does not burn as easily, if you had no or a poor intercooler, and the temperature of the intake charge was high, I would say that higher octane gas would be of benefit. The more risk of detonation, the greater the need for higher octane. My other initial impression is that modern cars from the last few years with very sophisticated engine management may be able to compensate much better for lower octane fuel than older more primitive systems. I would imagine that the older your car, the more benefit being conservative and running higher octane fuel would be. On a "primitive" turbo car, I would err on the side of running higher grade fuel. Less of an electronic safety net should you need it. On a recent car, you won't notice things going haywire due to low grade fuel as the electronics will compensate and back off timing advance, boost, or other factors to save expensive parts from damage. The driver would not notice or would only notice a little performance loss. This would explain why someone with a relatively new high performance car may have run lesser fuel and not noticed any difference, although much may be actually occurring to adjust. For a non-turbo car, I would say that 90% of the time at least, premium is a waste of your money unless you are running high compression or have some cylinder head temp issues of some sort...

MOBIL 1 synthetic atf. I can get it locally at the typical Advance Auto slash AutoZone kind of places, so should be available at the big chain auto parts outlets near you.

1990 Loyale SPFI 2wd 5 speed about 29.5 highway last I checked...

Great choice, like the color. My only small beef with this series is that the tires on every one I've seen look a size or two too small for the rim, like a forklift tire. Minor carp. Thumbs up.

Brrrroooowwwwnnnnn.

In my experience, you will detect the small cracks in the boot and general deterioration of the rubber long before the boot splits to the point where enough grease is expelled to smell it. By the time you have that much grease coming out, it has generally been cracked for some time. You will notice splits beginning and getting worse for quite some time prior to actual structural failure of the boot. I've seen quite a few older cars where the boot has not actually failed yet, and grease is not actually being lost, but the rubber appears quite ages and there are numerous small splits appearing, with failure imminent.

check out http://www.rustbullet.com

I ordered a bunch of odds and ends from Jamie. Great service. When I got the wrong CTS, she had the right one here practically before I could email her that I needed it. Highly recommend.

yes, POR 15 is about the equal of rust bullet. have not tried waxoyl, but will check it out...

My 1990 SPFI 2wd 5spd wagon does the same. 2300 rpm when started cold. 750 rpm idle warm. 500-600 rpm idle after long highway run. I have replaced dist cap, rotor, plug wires, 02 sensor, coolant temp sensor, air filter with new parts. I have changed out the MAF sensor and throttle position sensor with good used parts. I still have bogging when warm a lot of the time, with hesitation and stumbling. When cold, car runs perfect, first 2-3 minutes. Also seems to do a little better when cool outside versus warm ( ambient ). Getting a little tired of it, actually. Wonder what it is going to take to get it to run right for longer than 3 min. interested in this thread...

FWIW, two items I have found that are great against the evil of rust: #1 is a product called T9 BoeShield. You can get it at bike shops, or some Yamaha motorcycle dealers carry it. It was developed by Boeing aircraft as a spray lube that would stick around. It leaves a waxy coating on things to protect from further exposure. Great stuff. A miracle in a can. #2 is called Rust Bullet. This is great for painting surfaces that are likely to rust. Google it, there is probably a bunch of stuff out there on it. If you live in an area with rust-causing properties, or own a car prone to rusting, you should have these two items on a shelf. When you say the word BOE SHIELD, a little "aaahhhhh" sound emanates from above and a ray of light comes down from the clouds. Really good stuff.

Here are some odds and ends/tools I have found handy over time: A large breaker bar with a non-ratcheting 1/2" drive end. Sears, etc good source. A 1/2" to 3/8" adapter so you can use your 3/8 drive sockets with the bar. The bar comes in handy for stubborn crap like suspension bolts, etc, and just as a pry lever sometimes. An offset small philips screwdriver. Great for getting in tight spots like TPS screws, etc. You don't need this until you are wanting to work on something that has a hard to access screw, and you have no other easy solution. A godsend when you need it. A small magnetic pick up so you can retrieve little things you drop. Some cat litter in case you spill something. Rags Good jackstands or ramps. Sounds stupid but don't work under the car using a jack only. Some small amounts of blue locktite, thread anti-seize, dielectric grease on hand so you don't have to make a special trip when you need it, and you don't skip it because you don't have it on hand when you should use it. Penetrating oil to pre-treat rough fasteners prior to working on them. Quick access to the minds on this forum.

In my experience, there is only one magic trans fluid: TRANS-X. This is the Seafoam of trans quick fixes. If it doesn't work, nothing will.

Sunroof another idea. There is a tray under the sunroof up in the headliner to catch water. This water drains through tubes attached to the tray, down the pillars of the car. When the tubes get clogged, the tray fills up with water and overflows into the car. Usually, when this occurs you will hear the water in the tray, or when you stop and the water comes forward it will run out the front edge of the tray and get on the people in the front seats. There will generally be wet headliner or pillar trim somewhere if this is your issue. More often the door sheeting. The sunroof issue happens more in cold weather. The water in the drain tubes freezes and clogs them sometimes. Have someone sit in the car while someone else stands outside and pours water from a hose on the roof over the entire car. Look under the dash, around all the windows, run your hand along the bottom if the inside door panels, etc, feeling for water. Sometimes water will leak around the windshield gasket and travel down wiring under the dash, making the appearance different than the real source.

Yes, this kind of thing is almost always the clear plastic sheeting behind the inner door trim panel. It is actually normal for water to run down inside the door, and this sheeting is generally held by black sticky mastic to the metal, to keep water out. When there is a gap or tear in the sheeting, water gets in and is hard to trace, usually ends up in the floorboard somewhere.\ I would say that there is a 75% chance this is your issue. Take all the interior door panels off, and make sure that the plastic is sealed 100% tight all the way around the edge on all doors.

That sucks. I have ordered from them 3-4 times and never had a problem.

It really, really, takes a totally insignificant amount of effort to peek under the car and take a quick look at the boots. It also takes a really minimal amount of thought to remember to do this periodically. I think it is totally unnecessary to visually inspect them daily or weekly, but every couple of weeks or once a month is probably way more than enough to give you an excellent change of spotting tears or splits in time to replace to boot and not have lasting damage. With all due respect, really a non-issue in my humble opinion. If you aren't disciplined enough to keep a visual eye from time to time on how your car is doing, you deserve to get screwed by a shop or have your car break down, and in the case of CVs, you deserve to drive forever on a ripped boot until you eat up the joint. The single most reliable way to take care of your CVs is to look at the boots periodically. It takes so little effort. Call it the Darwinian theory of CV boot inspection: the ones who expend the 1/100th of a calorie to look at it once in a while will be naturally selected and survive, and the ones who don't will dwindle and eventually be extinct.