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| Last year, right about this time, my 2001 Subaru |
by LongFist |
2015-06-17 07:02:00 |
Outback LTD decided to spin the #3 crank bearing, pretty much ending its 15-year run, at least for the time being. (I purchased in 2000; I count actual time in service...) Well, I had just purchased a 1994 Nissan 300 ZX from my next-door neighbor about a month before, and since he had already lowered it 2" (talk about riding on a rail!) I had begun trickling money into it to turn it into a track car.
When Gagglezoomer (the Subaru's name, he's the one on the left) spun that crank bearing, it changed everything. I suddenly had to reverse course and make the 300 Z-car road-ready. (This is a pic of the two cohabitating one weekend before heading off to the track. The 300's name become Viper --- named after the Battlestar Galactica fightercraft. A quick jaunt from 0-100 in 5 seconds will leave that sort of impression.)
Well, $3,500 is less than $7,000 (the cost of a rebuild of Gagglezoomer's impressively modded, balanced, and blueprinted engine - now you see why I was hanging out at Black Forest Racing, right?) so I spent the lesser amount to get Viper "road-ready" and quietly killed my aspirations at the track. "H4" I rationalized, "It's just a stupid waste of money that would probably get me killed, anyway." Mind you, as deaths go, that would have to be one of the more pleasurable ways to die. Maybe. ("Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die...") I'm not competent to say, having never died before.
To get the 300 "road-ready" we returned the vehicle to its normal ride height, as the lowered height had incredible difficulty with raised manhole covers and such - just about any road debris would strike the front bumper empenage, and this was going to become a daily driver. Ah, well, until we get better roads... The previous owner didn't understand the importance of tires and what part they play in providing a stable, safe, and controllable ride for such a powerful machine; there were four different tires of different compounds and different makes on that car - the tread patterns didn't even come close to matching. I guess that might have explained his problems keeping the machine under control. Kids. I bought a set of BF GoodRich GeForce 2 Sport Compound tires and got those mounted up - improving the handling of that monster by about 300%. Well worth the money. Ah, well, what do *I* know?
Anyway, here we are almost exactly one year later, and I took Viper back in to the shop for an oil change (they happen regularly) and new tires: the current GeForce 2's are beginning to "slick out", and compound is getting dry. Safety issues, plus it would need a safety inspection to renew the license plate. I'd kill all those birds with one stone, and in a day or so I'd be back on the road and killin' it with the big boys again. Well, that's what I thought, anyway.
When it went up (on the lift) for the oil change, we discovered that you could see three exposed steel belts on the inside sidewall of the driver's side front tire. The rear tires were wearing fine, especially for the FUN I consistently expose them to, and the other front tire seemed to be okay as well, so we had a mystery on our hands. I asked about the alignment that was performed when the suspension was all-but-replaced last year, but the information didn't appear to be in the computer. Or in my case file/history. Oh, I'd paid for it, but apparently the tech (back then) hadn't actually performed the service. Well, there was no trace of it having been done.
Before I go nuclear, let me make something terrifically clear: apparently they rebuilt the entire suspension of my car and apparently had it pretty close to aligned WITHOUT an alignment! (For those of you without the experience: "Behold: a MIRACLE!") Think about that for a minute, and then consider "what happens next". There is a reason I deal with this auto shop pretty exclusively.
So the bill for this year's rat-f4 will be $2,500 and some change. ("Hey! That's $1,000 less than last year!" "Shaddap; *NOT* helping...") Oil Change, NC State Safety Inspection, 4 BF GoodRich GForce Comp2 A/S tires, replace Left and Right upper control arms, replace Left and Right radius strut rods, replace both rear shock absorbers - here we go again! But we have to keep in mind that this 22-year-old vehicle spent a lot of time just sitting, and these components tend to age gracelessly anyway. And I replace them in pairs because that's the way they wear, and I'd rather not spend a fortune in up/down (lift) time and "wrench" time having to come in several times over the next few months replacing these components that *need* replaced anyway, so let's just get it done right the first time and move on.
There, on the underside of my car, lie what would have been my new laptop, the one I need for Engineering school. I'm considering making a run on the Credit Card, even though I *know* that way lies bankruptcy. Compound interest is not your friend, doesn't take weekends and holidays off, and serves only to fill the bank's coffers. But sometimes the need seems sufficient...
On the plus side they comp'ed me the Deluxe Four-Wheel alignment. Guess it actually happens this time. I wonder if it will drive any differently. Meanwhile, I have their loaner car, so I'm not stranded. All things considered I guess I'm fairly fortunate: that tire could have blown out, and loss of the left-front tire during any maneuvering could be catastrophic at all but the slowest speeds... |
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