Metro Goes
Mar. 26th, 2011 08:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
errantemberUndoubtedly tired after it's long nap, the Metro has been running quite rough since I got it running again.
Dealing with frequent re-starts and sluggish off-the-deck performance was bad enough, but I should have known I was really in trouble when I couldn't get the fucker started after four tries while an ambulance was crawling up my ass, lights flashing and horn blazing. Maintenance minutia follows:
After getting stuck at several traffic lights and briefly marooned up on the side of 71, it was clearly time to Take Further Action. Symptoms included rough running, a strong tendency to dip and die at idle, and a really bad lack of responsiveness to light gas pedal pressure.
I recently fixed the chronic OMG Squeakiness by tightening the shit out of the alternator belt. It was kind of ridiculously tight, so I tried loosening it up a bit. No joy. I also found a small exhaust hose that wasn't connected properly, but that didn't really seem to change anything. I replaced the air filter, which helped, but it was still stalling. Then I noticed that one ground cable I had added as part of a previous battery of attempts to solve a similar problem was actually crossing the main ignition wire going to the distributor cap. Thinking there might be some kind of inductive issue, I moved it further away from the wire, and bingo, everything is great now! The car idles relatively smoothly indefinitely, even with the A/C on. I just drove it downtown for a night of GameSalad and Elysium, and it ran like a champ the entire way.
People who don't maintain their own cars rarely get to experience this level of proprietary joy about their vehicles.
They also don't get stuck as much as I do.
Dealing with frequent re-starts and sluggish off-the-deck performance was bad enough, but I should have known I was really in trouble when I couldn't get the fucker started after four tries while an ambulance was crawling up my ass, lights flashing and horn blazing. Maintenance minutia follows:
After getting stuck at several traffic lights and briefly marooned up on the side of 71, it was clearly time to Take Further Action. Symptoms included rough running, a strong tendency to dip and die at idle, and a really bad lack of responsiveness to light gas pedal pressure.
I recently fixed the chronic OMG Squeakiness by tightening the shit out of the alternator belt. It was kind of ridiculously tight, so I tried loosening it up a bit. No joy. I also found a small exhaust hose that wasn't connected properly, but that didn't really seem to change anything. I replaced the air filter, which helped, but it was still stalling. Then I noticed that one ground cable I had added as part of a previous battery of attempts to solve a similar problem was actually crossing the main ignition wire going to the distributor cap. Thinking there might be some kind of inductive issue, I moved it further away from the wire, and bingo, everything is great now! The car idles relatively smoothly indefinitely, even with the A/C on. I just drove it downtown for a night of GameSalad and Elysium, and it ran like a champ the entire way.
People who don't maintain their own cars rarely get to experience this level of proprietary joy about their vehicles.
They also don't get stuck as much as I do.
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-27 03:47 am (UTC)On the other hand, there is a substantial amount of Voodoo involved.
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Date: 2011-03-27 04:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-27 06:18 am (UTC)Or it could just be the tiny drifting motes of human soul left by SXSW.