Love/Hate

[Ryan]

So I've been working on this car for a long time now.

-Bought it with a blown ATX and a tired K8. Swapped the whole mess out of it for a KLDE MTX.
-Did the necessary wiring to convert it properly
-There's a semi-functional alarm, non functional command start, and functional immobilizer crammed under the dash. Serious rats nest.
-Did a dash swap because the old one was cracked and painted in places.
-Exterior body was rough, worked it and rattle canned it flat black (didn't care at this point)
-Fixed up all of the suspension. Its pretty rusty down there.
-Fixed a few holes in the rockers and floor, and beneath the fuse box.

Working out the gremlins has been rough
-repaired a hole in the fins of the rad, the upper hose, and the EGR hose all in one weekend. I detest coolant on a good day.
-Threw a tonne of codes at first, EGR, VRIS, O2, ECT, fan switch, the list goes on. Got most of them sorted out.
-Car was running super rich, thew both O2 codes (17 and 24), and idled high.


So naturally I'm getting a little sick of it. I just want it to work.


So I take a gander under the hood, and its staring me in the face, the FPR hose is disconnected from the manifold!

Plug it in, reset codes, start it up, and blamo, rock solid 700 RPM idle. O2 codes gone. Re-set the ignition timing, and now its very steady feeling.

YAY!!! FINALLY! something works right, and I'm back to loving the car. Took a year to get sick of it, and 5 minutes to love it again


Anyone else have ups and downs like this?

[Daninski]

I've been really lucky, all three of my MX-3s have been great and the 4th one started great as well but I never drove it. You did a pile O work on that car Ryan so it's expected some bug is going to need ironing out.

[Polonius]

Glad you're on the love side now!

Because I don't know very much about the tougher stuff, I can get pretty stressed out when something goes wrong. And until I'd got the low compression sorted out (and found out how affordable it is to "fix"!), I wasn't sure I'd hang on to the car if it went south. So I looked bipolar for two years or so. Going well or an easy and cheap fix = happy. Weirder, harder ones like low compression and that mysterious death of last year made me think I'd be junking it.

Now I'll love it until something goes horribly wrong, or when I start the BP swap.

But then, isn't it often true that you hate most the thing you love most?

[WhiteFinish]

I completely see what you mean

I have this love/hate relationship with my car as well.
Sometimes when trying to fix things (for example a high CO value (7%)) I hate it !

But than; when I drive it again immediatly a smile appears.

[Dark_Rider2k3]

hahahahaha well you know how I feel Ryan. Sometimes you just want to get rid of the whole damn thing.

Trust me though, it's worth it in the end.... even now I still don't regret all the work I put into that car. I loved it

[Mooneggs]

This is a great thread

Yep, I definately have my ups and downs... Fortunately the last couple years have been pretty good and mostly ups. Usually I have downs when I am trying to do something custom or something that was custom broke and is difficult to troubleshoot/fix. As far as normal maintenance stuff I have been incredibly happy with the reliability of my DD (even with high mileage)!

Recent downs were breaking a timing belt on a roadtrip (and fixing it in a parking lot) and trying to track down a ghost of an issue that appears it may have just been a loose signal wire to my HEI module... sigh...

[crazycanadian]

I have hated 2 of my cars in the past... Never did get back to completely loving them...

I had a 90 cavalier... after my own stupidity with a 65 shot melted a piston in my 3.1L V6 I swapped it out for a HO 2.3L quad 4... After 30 hours of work getting everything perfect and looking stock with the swap I drove the car 1 hour before throwing a rod bearing the first I dropped a gear and opened the car up... Pissed me off so much I stripped the car, scrapped it.. picked up a convertible for cheap.. got a new motor... got it stripped ready to swap and a buddy of mine went and bought and built a convertible cavalier just like how I was building mine... stole the thunder out of my build... so sold everything scrapped the convertible and bought a 323...

after my first 323 I picked up an 88GTX... damn thing was a love hate relationship..... When it ran it ran great... when it broke it broke!.. I broke the center diff planetary gears the first week of owning... I first noticed it on a trip where I was 600km from home... thankfully made it home.. So I rebuild the transmission... Some random point the car developed a high idle problem I could never solve... It also developed a lean hesitation on tip in from cruising... I never could figure out why... For what ever reason the injector pulse width had a flat spot in it causing the lean hesitation.... Then I blew the transmission up again on my way to a concert with a really cute girl I liked... never did make it... After 2 years of sitting I started getting it back on the road.. finally gave up after putting 30 hours into and finding the rear strut tower on the drivers side rotten... So I sold it... For some odd reason I still really miss that car....

[Daninski]

Then I blew the transmission up again on my way to a concert with a really cute girl I liked...

Ok so what ever happened to the girl???????

I was on my way to a drive in and my heater core blew spraying water onto the passenger side. I apologized to the girl, got out and rerouted the other hose to the return side and carried on to the drive in movie. I had a blanket so we cuddled and Dan got to third base that night.

[Daninski]

Oh crap I almost forgot about this one. When I was 20 I had a 1969 340ci Dart Swinger that needed work about every two weeks, anyway. My long haired buddies and I were at a stop light waiting for it to change to green. We were all really,,,,umm, feeling mellow and the car was filled with,,smoke. It was raining and a cop car with two cops pulled up beside us. Being in the mental state we were in we got a little paranoid and just then as my wipers were going back and forth the drivers one flew off and went sailing through the air landing on the cop car hood. I was like, fook me, so I got out and as casually as possible went over, nodded at the cops, picked my wiper off their hood and proceeded to reinstall it on my car. The light changed we drove off and I took the first left and pulled over. My buddy looked over and said " sheet man, did that really just happen". I used lock tight on the wiper bolts when I fixed them. True story.

[Dark_Rider2k3]

Hahahah woah that's crazy!!!

[MrMazda92]

Wow Dan, that's some insight into a life well lived! At least you know how to have fun, I'm jealous of that last story.

My worst hate moment to date is when my tranny stuck in reverse at the airport... In a one lane, one way road, that was fairly crowded... The line grew quickly. That was a bad day, but all's well that ends well.

[Daninski]

My worst hate moment to date is when my tranny stuck in reverse at the airport... In a one lane, one way road, that was fairly crowded... The line grew quickly. That was a bad day, but all's well that ends well.

My buddy's 65 Pontiac got stuck in reverse so he drove about 15 miles home in reverse. Next day he said his neck was sore as hell.

[mx-3_4evr]

LOL ups and downs! Tell me about it! I have built my car about 4 time and going into the 5th. Most of mine where downs but I know a lot more now than ever. I love my MX-3!

[MrMazda92]

Ryan, I'd take that over explaining to 20 or so angry people why they were stuck in a one lane one way road for an hour

[crazycanadian]

Then I blew the transmission up again on my way to a concert with a really cute girl I liked...

Ok so what ever happened to the girl???????

I was on my way to a drive in and my heater core blew spraying water onto the passenger side. I apologized to the girl, got out and rerouted the other hose to the return side and carried on to the drive in movie. I had a blanket so we cuddled and Dan got to third base that night.

She was pissed off at me since she had bought the tickets and when I didn't show she had no one to go with... But in kept her satisfied in ways her bf wasn't... so it was all good...