gotta love the little things...

[Eldorado]

gotta love the little things..
today I took the day off work and came out in the afternoon to do some much needed jobs on the car..

why is it that the big jobs, like wheel bearings, timing belt change, etc... we plan whole weekends for, but the small things we keep saying we'll do later? Well today was my 'later' for a couple things... if you dont care what my little things were, skip to the end!

- the ground cable on the batt. was loose and floppy on the post.. didn't make great contact... and the pos. lead was all rusted, separating from the wire... green powder everywhere... the accessory leads attached to it had bare wires flying all over.. i've got pics if you really wanna see.. it was ugly.. anyway, I changed my battery-to-ground lead for a brand new 4awg shiny beauty and rebuilt the pos. connectors.. all of them..

- spraypainted my battery tray.. it was already repaired and had the rubber coating on it... but i just never got around to spraying it 'till today...

- primed and sprayed the rear wiper arm after clearing it of all the surface rust and junk that had come from the last time I wanted to spray it but didn't... I had sanded it all down at that point and just left it.. of course it rusted like mad.... fixed all that up, but got a little overspray on the hatch glass.. eep! no matter, caught it quick enough with a wet sponge and a prayer to the porsche gods.

- finally removed my K&N cone filter and changed it for the stock air box... car didn't like it at first... rev'd pretty low with *horrible* mpg (as told by the gauge, even though it was just at idle...) but it sorted itself out...


so my question to you all is this... when was your last "silly little thing" repair day, and what did you accomplish?


next on my list... coolant flush, fix leak in power steering pump and flush/fill fluid, replace front rad fans, replace lower rad hose...

[JivenJim]

Hey El,

Glad to hear you took a snow day.
Every Saturday is my little things day. Most of the time Sundays. Then sometimes Monday-Friday.

Right now I'm hope all these little things go back to gether to make an engine, or maybe a model train set.

That's like, "don't sweat the small stuff. And everthing is the small stuff."

when you gonna put a Turbo leaf blower on that mouse house?

[Razorback1980]

Hey El...What are the small things you do on your car? Me, I try to fix my vacuum line and after I replace the broken plastic T, then I think well if that one is bad, then the rest must be brittle and about to break as well, so I better just go ahead and replace them then I have to go back to the parts store because I split one of the vacuum lines when I pulled on it and broke the wire going to the engine temperature sensor which I rounded off because I used a crescent wrench on it because I was too lazy to walk to the tool box and get the right wrench. After I grind new flat sides on the temp sending unit, I get it out but I have to replace the wiring connector because it fell off the wire when I pulled it loose and well, you get the story....after ten hours and 500 dollars, I come to the conclusion...no such thing as a small project!

[Slam]

The little things list goes on forever, eh? Gotta change the oil, put on winter wheels, adjust wheel bearings, fix charge light (that job's been taken over by the dash lights, which come on about the same time the charge light should go off), rust-proof the holes I made in the floor remounting the seats, send the injectors off to Witchhunter, get a shift boot, and on and on. And that's just the 944. The 924 work starts with a 924 to 944 coolant tank update and then goes from there. Who has time for all this?? And THEN! I gotta tear out the 931 motor and start pecking away at it. I think we all need to live in a Porsche commune or something. Our own race track, parts bin, heated repair facility, parts cars, harem...

[Eldorado]

while we're on it, is there a test for the injectors to see if they're in good running order? I dont have any problems with my car running (that i know of at least)..

same question for cap/rotor/plug wires/plugs....

[Razorback1980]

To test my injectors, I pull the fuel rail and put clear hoses on them and turn the car over and watch the spray. If it shoots a stream, it needs to be serviced. A friend of mine says to put a screwdriver on them and touch it to your ear and you can hear if they are working correctly...I haven't tried that method, but it sure seems easier than the way I do it. As for the cap and rotor, I only do visual inspections on them and other than that I change them on a routine basis like the timing belt. If you have excess grooves on the tips in the cap or the rotor looks really black and pitted on the end, I replace them. I do the plugs at intervals as well, however, you can pull them and look at their overall condition. If the tips are worn down, just replace them as they are so cheap that it doesn't take long to get your money back with the cost of gasoline. I check plug wires with an ohm meter or open the hood at night to see what their overall condition is like. If you see sparks flying around under your hood, they need replaced. The ohm meter works ok, but it won't always catch a wire that is sparking because you may have moved the plug wire away from the metal it is sparking against when you pulled it to check it. There may be better ways but I think that regular maintenance like we do timing belts is the best policy.

[Eldorado]

I've never replaced them...
i know the previous owner didn't replace them...
so that means they're all at least 5 years old... how's that for age?

[Razorback1980]

With them it's more miles than age, however age can crack plug wires and sometimes contribute to fire jumping inside the distributor cap. I usually replace mine when I do timing belts so the interval is about the same. Again, that's a personal preference and I'm not sure how that compares to the Porsche recommended intervals. I just do the "while I'm in there" policy.

[Eldorado]

gotcha.. thanks.

[jezza944]

Hey Kyle, just did a "little thing" I've been gonna do for ages. That small breather tube on the timing belt cover that used to go to the standard air filter box, well with my cone filter, after reading on here that Porsche deleted it, I thought I would block the hole. If money isn't a problem, buy the cap to block it, or as is my case, buy a cheap bottle of champaigne, drink the contents with the wife (or girlfreind), and plug the hole with the cork!! Fitted perfectly.

[Eldorado]

that's a great idea... I just plugged mine with electrical tape :P

one strip over the hole, another strip 90 degrees of the first strip over the hole... did a couple layers around the rim and cut... looks half decent.. doesn't even look like tape.. lol

[Marcone]

Last little thing i did... get the front passengers side fog light replaced. Not just the bulb ...The Whole bloody thing!

Body shop apparently broke the bracket to screw it in... and while driving a while ago a week after the paint job, the light ended up as a mini jump for my car..haha... just imagine driving along..and thump crunch crunch thump .... then the feeling of ... Hmmm thats gonna be expencive....

How did it stay in till then... well.... they GLUED it in with some kind of eurothane-ish goop. Didnt tell me...

Thats on the list of things they are in for haha...

Marcone
www.marconemusic.com

[shikzachaser]

Kyle:

Last Saturday was a little thing day for me too. It started w/ a good wash. It was kind of chilly here so I pulled it back into the garage and turned the heat on. By then it was 10:00AM so Sport's Center got turned on. While it was inside migt as well wax it. While the wax dried might as well put in the new door panels. My old ones had holes cut for bigger speakers and I got a really nice pair off Ebay for $50. That led to adjusting the amplifier level. The amp's under the passenger seat so while the seat's out might as well clean it and use some leather conditioner. While the passenger one is out might as well do the Driver's side. While the seats are out might as well vacuum the interior really well. While the seats are out it's also easy to get to the back seats to clean and treat them. By now the wax is dry so it comes off and I decide to back-to-black the rear rubber and the rubber around the windows. That leads to really cleaning the glass. While I'm at it I went ahead and got the boost gauge and air / fuel gauge out as they won't be needed. One thing led to another and by the time I came up for air it was 4:30PM. Now the car looks really good and the stereo is jammin. Got to go for a ride. That leads to another hour of driving out in the country. It's amazing how much time can be wasted on these cars. The scarry part is that next Saturday has been set aside for the M3 little thing day.


Steve