What did you do to your car today?

Posted by: @seantc

Posted by: @uncle-mush

Glad to see you here at "the better place" and happy for you hearing that permagrin is back in your life.   Happy motoring.  I wish you happiness in parenthood, also.

Posted by: @dev

 

 Congratulations on your newborn baby.  

  A blown head gasket is rare but it happens if there is an overheat condition.  Thats a great price on a new 1ZZ.  Good to see that you are back on the road.   I would  have your coolant sampled to see of there is any residual oil and if there is do a few flushes to get it all out.   

Apart from that there is nothing like getting a new lease on this car to keep it enjoying it, welcome to the forum. 

 

Thank you gentlemen.

 

As for the 1ZZ I actually contacted a few of eBay's most prominent "JDM Engine" dealers to see if they could differentiate between 00-01/02/03+ 1ZZ engines they had in stock, and I never got a response back from any of them. I'm not sure anyone outside of the top minds could figure that one out by looking at the longblock alone. Definitely wasn't a risk I was going to take. Anyway I got lucky and bought one off of a Spyderchat user who very recently did a 2AR swap on his 2003. My mistake calling it "New" I should have said New-ish, heh.

 Its still a great price if it has low miles and is coming from a member where you know some of the history.   One great thing about this car is, its not terribly expensive to make it road worthy.  There really isn't any advantage to buying a newer car except for creature features and electronic gadgetry. As far as fun to drive the Spyder still has and it is rare enough not to look dated like a very old MX5. 

Over last weekend, I drove it to get some parts to complete a SC kit install on my daily driver FR-S.  But soon....  an engine will come out of the mister two...  soon.....

After raining the past few days, and today a 72 degrees day in western PA, the roads dried up with the nice breeze, thus it became a permagrin day for sure. Took the Spyder for a spirited drive to exercise old girl. Everything worked as advertised including my face.

sorry for the run on sentence but I’m still feeling the effect.

Last week I finally installed the rear wheel and tire package I've had sitting in the garage for several months. 

949 6UL 15x8 +40 (I believe that's the offset)

Federal 595RS-RR 225/50/15 

Weight: ~33lbs

Stock rear wheels with 205/50/15 Kumho Ecsta PS31 moved to front. They're very near the end of their life... Probably about 6/32 left on them, they have served for over 15k miles already. 

Weight: ~31lbs

Weight of stock front wheel and 185/55/15 PS31: ~29lbs

So this wheel change has added ~2lbs of rotational mass per corner. Was hoping not to gain weight but at least it is minimal.

Initial impressions:

GOOD GOD these things are sticky! Turns I would typically kick the tail out on purpose with throttle modulation in first gear immediately became perfectly clean turns. Even going WOT at the point in these turns I would previously only add moderate fuel would result in a chirp from each rear wheel but nothing more. After some more practice I now know I have to go WOT way earlier in the turn to break free, if that is the goal.

Surprisingly to me, I cannot feel the 8 additional lbs of wheel weight.

For the first time in my experience, the car is understeering at the limit, although I can usually return to neutral with a bit more throttle if conditions allow. I can now take cloverleaf loops 43-44mph before the front end starts to complain. 

As expected, these tires do generate some noise. Not too concerned about it in this car, since it's loud anyway, but I probably wouldn't put them on my TSX. On my Toy it might even be a plus, since I think the noise the tires are adding is altering the resonant frequency overall to something less annoying than it was before. 

Steering is a tad bit heavier now with 205 in the front instead of 185. I expected this since many have mentioned it. I do not find it unbearable, the car still reacts quickly to steering input and I feel the difference the most when under 5mph. With this said, I may look into whether Federal makes the 595RS-RR or similar in 195/50/15, since Federal tires tend to run on the wide side and I don't think I want to go any wider than my current 205s.

I have a small amount of fender liner rub in the front on larger bumps. More camber may help with this, as well as help with the understeer. More on that momentarily. 

Yesterday, went to the alignment shop for a check-up. Been having some steering drift to the left and the wheel was off center to right when travelling straight. 

Final numbers:

FL -0.9° Camber, 3.7° Caster, -0.23° Toe 

FR -1.3° Camber, 3.5° Caster, -0.21° Toe

RL -1.5° Camber, -0.11° Toe (from -0.65°) 

RR -1.5° Camber, -0.10° Toe (from -0.32°)

No idea how my rear camber has landed so perfectly with the current suspension setup but have the toe so wildly off after just a year. Maybe it was the aftermarket toe arm braces I installed. Anyway, we aimed for 0.1° toe in and landed close enough. The steering issues ended up being from the rear toe. Car drive straight and true now. 

We opted not to bother with the front yet (yes I know front toe in is terrible as well) until I install crash bolts and rough in my camber towards -1.8° or so... Then I will go back to get camber refined and toe set with a goal of 0.05° toe in per side. Hopefully this will significantly reduce the current understeer before I replace the front tires.

Looks:

A bit silly with two stock wheels and two aftermarket...

But overall I like how the wheel offsets and tire sizes help to flush up the side of the car and widen the track.

Not to mention how aggressive the tires themselves look.

I  do have a pair of 6UL 15x7 for the front which will go on when it is time to buy front tires... Someday. 

Hopefully the picture taking of my dirty car has improved, following dev's advice of get closer, and get lower. 👍

Posted by: @haloruler64

I drove her home. Irvine to San Francisco. Total of 9 hours of travel including lunch. Car now has 151,700 miles on it. Not even a hiccup. DESPERATELY needs cruise control though.

Please let me know if you come up with a solution for the cruise control. I bought the MWR unit but I subsequently returned it because it seemed not as good as my special little car deserves! My S2000's have factory cruise and that difference is so fabulous for long trips! 

Posted by: @desertwanderer

Posted by: @haloruler64

I drove her home. Irvine to San Francisco. Total of 9 hours of travel including lunch. Car now has 151,700 miles on it. Not even a hiccup. DESPERATELY needs cruise control though.

Please let me know if you come up with a solution for the cruise control. I bought the MWR unit but I subsequently returned it because it seemed not as good as my special little car deserves! My S2000's have factory cruise and that difference is so fabulous for long trips! 

I really think we have two options. MWR, which I will likely go with... or 2AR/2GR swap where the ECU comes with cruise control built in. The latter is better lol.

Hmmmm... cruise control.... I had initially thought I'd want to add it to the car, but after having done several road trips in excess of 3000 miles, I have changed my mind.  

Personal preference, I'm not going to add it.  The fuel tank isn't big enough to make me tired between stops.  If I was able to make it 500+ miles then it might be a serious consideration.  

I installed the MWR Cruise and find that it is very good system. Had to do some minor mods when installing it.

dealing with MWR can have some downside.

Posted by: @pwnzor

Hmmmm... cruise control.... I had initially thought I'd want to add it to the car, but after having done several road trips in excess of 3000 miles, I have changed my mind.  

 

Personal preference, I'm not going to add it.  The fuel tank isn't big enough to make me tired between stops.  If I was able to make it 500+ miles then it might be a serious consideration.  

 Good to know Im not the only one. It's not to say I never used cruise control but often I forget to use it and never felt annoyed that I need to add and subtract gas.  I usually feel like Im killing time by playing the guessing game of predicting how much gas to give to keep a smooth flow so I do not have to slow the car down. It keeps me attentive and aware of what is happening ahead of me. 

Posted by: @cspidy

dealing with MWR can have some downside.

I've heard that before, but my experience with them was 100% positive.

Posted by: @dev

Posted by: @pwnzor

Hmmmm... cruise control.... I had initially thought I'd want to add it to the car, but after having done several road trips in excess of 3000 miles, I have changed my mind.  

 

Personal preference, I'm not going to add it.  The fuel tank isn't big enough to make me tired between stops.  If I was able to make it 500+ miles then it might be a serious consideration.  

 Good to know Im not the only one. It's not to say I never used cruise control but often I forget to use it and never felt annoyed that I need to add and subtract gas.  I usually feel like Im killing time by playing the guessing game of predicting how much gas to give to keep a smooth flow so I do not have to slow the car down. It keeps me attentive and aware of what is happening ahead of me. 

 

Likewise, my time in the Spyder has gotten me used to not using cruise control in my TSX. It does keep me more attentive, and I now only use cruise control when I'm driving multiple hundreds of miles of freeway.

I also got to drive on the new tires in the wet on only the second day they were on the car. I fully expected them to not do so well but was pleasantly surprised. At least while they are new, they hold well on wet roads. Although I try to avoid driving this car in the wet in general, I hope these continue to to perform well on wet roads when I do get caught.

Posted by: @marsrock7

I also got to drive on the new tires in the wet on only the second day they were on the car. I fully expected them to not do so well but was pleasantly surprised. At least while they are new, they hold well on wet roads. Although I try to avoid driving this car in the wet in general, I hope these continue to to perform well on wet roads when I do get caught.

Watch out for tires like this. Initially they offer some great rain performance because of the channels but within a few thousand miles it will turn on you real quick and will slip unless they are tires related for good rain performance.  

 These high performance compound street tires are great but as they get heat cycled out they will not just lose some of their grip they will lose all of it and you will not know until it just happens one day. I had this happen to me last weekend and now Im too scared to drive the car even at moderate speeds because it feels like someone pulled the rug from under me letting all four tires lose grip at once unpredictably. My tires are now worse than the cheapest all season tire in the dry. 

@dev

Reading reviews, many are please with wet performance on these tires as long as one avoids standing water, which I do religiously in this car anyway. I don't push my luck in the wet regardless, I was just happy to feel they were holding tighter than the kumho's did previously. 

I do understand they are budget performance rubber and there may be some caveats. Thankfully they wear out quickly, I drive hard, and a lot. All together I expect no more than 10k miles out of these on the rear... Maybe only 8k. 

Just did the math: over the past 18 months I've averaged 833.333 miles per month, which comes out 9999.999 miles per year. (What are the odds?) If I stick with these tires, I expect to replace the rears annually at the least.

It sucks your tires gave up so unpredictably, but glad no one is hurt and nothing is damaged. I had a similar experience when I first got my Spyder running. I was inexperienced with the car and still had crappy rubber from the PO. Pushed a little too hard when the road was a bit wet and ended up going down the highway ass first. Just stopping wasn't an option so I tried to 180 it again and ended up doing a 540 before I got straight. This fiasco started in the right lane of a 4 lane highway and I got straight in the left shoulder. It was a big moment to thank whatever deity may exist as I didn't kill or injure myself or anyone else, and miraculously managed to not even damage the car. I vowed never to have this experience again. I made tires and suspension my next big priorities and most of all I learned to respect the car. 

 Im very lucky. It was a small two lane with poor visibility to know where the oncoming traffic is coming because its hilly. I know this road well enough but just like that all four wheels gave out at once and I didn't have any steering. No squealing and it was quiet as the car was trying to recover from a turn that should have been no problem. Im still wondering where the smoke came from, clutch? tires? oil from the G forces riding up on the wall off the cylinder. I will probably go under the car and see if there is any loose or bent control arms but im certainly not driving it until I get new rubber because I feel like the tires have turned to plastic. I knew early on something was wrong when I hit lift and had the car pull to the right.