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Yet more car stuff
Jun. 11th, 2021 03:11 amWorking on Nozomi: Slight overheating issue. It happens only with the combination of hot weather and stop-and-go traffic and with the air conditioning on. With all three conditions, the temperature gauge starts climbing and gets a bit higher than it used to. If I take out one of those factors the overheating subsides. Nevertheless, it needs fixed. I've narrowed it down to one of the fans. There are two that are supposed to run at the same time, and only one of them does. I already have the replacement part, it's just a matter of extricating the old fan and sliding in the new (and hoping it's not a wiring issue).
Ai's oil pan gasket issues seems to have stemmed from me using an aftermarket oil pan. When I pulled that off to replace the gasket, the gasket was ripped and torn. It was on there for less than a year. I then looked at the oil pan itself, which I bought in 2018. The mating surface didn't seem right, kinda uneven and lumpy. I looked at the OEM pan I had kept. The mating surface was nice and flat and even. So I put another gasket on and put the OEM pan back on. That seems to have fought back that oil leak. There are still a bunch of other leaks but that's one less for now.
This may have been mentioned before, but something I've learned about older cars is when they get to about 15 years old, regardless of mileage, that's when the weird stuff starts happening. That's when odd parts just suddenly quit in weird ways, rubber seals harden and flatten, plastic parts crack and crumble, wire connections start to oxidize, and replacing them is more challenging because all the small parts and fasteners holding it all together have rusted themselves into oblivion. And what doesn't help is that many of those weird parts are only available from the original factory, and 15 years is also when they stop making those parts. Sometimes it's small and trivial stuff, sometimes it's a Moment of Truth. It takes a special kind of patience to keep a car beyond that. Anyone who doesn't have a garage or mechanical aptitude (or at least deep pockets), would be thoroughly justified in getting rid of such a car at this point.
You know how there are guys who have old muscle cars from the 60s and 70s that they're constantly working on? That's going to be me someday, except with old Hondas. I embrace that future. Having a 3rd car that doesn't need anything done to it and a garage is both a luxury and a double-edged sword. On one hand the urgency isn't there and I don't have to rush to fix anything. On the other hand the urgency isn't there and I don't have to rush to fix anything.
I thought about getting a 3rd EZ-pass transponder so each car has her own. Then again having 2 of them for 3 cars is good enough. Having 2 of them for 2 cars was a good idea, back when I would switch from one car to the other, from one day to the next. I didn't have to think about moving it between cars. That was a thing because sometimes when driving to work, it was worth it to take the detour through the Baltimore tunnels, which are part of the EZ-pass network. These days, I figure either Ai or Nozomi are going to be worked on in some capacity, so they can share one. So, I instead opted to add Miharu's license plate number to my account. It was also a good time to review any toll charges and look for any possible issues, which I did find.
My EZ-pass transponders were originally from 2009. I suspected they were starting to fail because they show up as "V-toll" in my recent statement, listing the license plate instead of the transponder. Which means their sensors didn't detect my transponder and they had to go by the license plate. I still get charged the EZ-pass rates (at least on the Turnpike; MD is a different matter), since the license plates are associated with my account, and it appears in the statements and not as bills in the mail. So, I sent a message (through my account) asking how long the transponders last. Their reply, in a nutshell: "We're sending new ones, and the old ones can be sent back in the included pre-paid envelope." Sure enough, the new ones arrived with the pre-paid envelope for the old. I mean, I was going to eventually ask about replacements, but they were ahead of me on that. Cool. In further conversation, they did verify that the transponders should be replaced at about 10 years.
There is a certain type of road trip coming up that will likely take place in early autumn, and even though I have Miharu now, and Nozomi will also work, Ai would be the more appropriate choice for it.
Ai's oil pan gasket issues seems to have stemmed from me using an aftermarket oil pan. When I pulled that off to replace the gasket, the gasket was ripped and torn. It was on there for less than a year. I then looked at the oil pan itself, which I bought in 2018. The mating surface didn't seem right, kinda uneven and lumpy. I looked at the OEM pan I had kept. The mating surface was nice and flat and even. So I put another gasket on and put the OEM pan back on. That seems to have fought back that oil leak. There are still a bunch of other leaks but that's one less for now.
This may have been mentioned before, but something I've learned about older cars is when they get to about 15 years old, regardless of mileage, that's when the weird stuff starts happening. That's when odd parts just suddenly quit in weird ways, rubber seals harden and flatten, plastic parts crack and crumble, wire connections start to oxidize, and replacing them is more challenging because all the small parts and fasteners holding it all together have rusted themselves into oblivion. And what doesn't help is that many of those weird parts are only available from the original factory, and 15 years is also when they stop making those parts. Sometimes it's small and trivial stuff, sometimes it's a Moment of Truth. It takes a special kind of patience to keep a car beyond that. Anyone who doesn't have a garage or mechanical aptitude (or at least deep pockets), would be thoroughly justified in getting rid of such a car at this point.
You know how there are guys who have old muscle cars from the 60s and 70s that they're constantly working on? That's going to be me someday, except with old Hondas. I embrace that future. Having a 3rd car that doesn't need anything done to it and a garage is both a luxury and a double-edged sword. On one hand the urgency isn't there and I don't have to rush to fix anything. On the other hand the urgency isn't there and I don't have to rush to fix anything.
I thought about getting a 3rd EZ-pass transponder so each car has her own. Then again having 2 of them for 3 cars is good enough. Having 2 of them for 2 cars was a good idea, back when I would switch from one car to the other, from one day to the next. I didn't have to think about moving it between cars. That was a thing because sometimes when driving to work, it was worth it to take the detour through the Baltimore tunnels, which are part of the EZ-pass network. These days, I figure either Ai or Nozomi are going to be worked on in some capacity, so they can share one. So, I instead opted to add Miharu's license plate number to my account. It was also a good time to review any toll charges and look for any possible issues, which I did find.
My EZ-pass transponders were originally from 2009. I suspected they were starting to fail because they show up as "V-toll" in my recent statement, listing the license plate instead of the transponder. Which means their sensors didn't detect my transponder and they had to go by the license plate. I still get charged the EZ-pass rates (at least on the Turnpike; MD is a different matter), since the license plates are associated with my account, and it appears in the statements and not as bills in the mail. So, I sent a message (through my account) asking how long the transponders last. Their reply, in a nutshell: "We're sending new ones, and the old ones can be sent back in the included pre-paid envelope." Sure enough, the new ones arrived with the pre-paid envelope for the old. I mean, I was going to eventually ask about replacements, but they were ahead of me on that. Cool. In further conversation, they did verify that the transponders should be replaced at about 10 years.
There is a certain type of road trip coming up that will likely take place in early autumn, and even though I have Miharu now, and Nozomi will also work, Ai would be the more appropriate choice for it.
