Pretty cool, considering it’s about six years old. Only thing missing is the CD with the software and instructions. (Which I suspect I could find if I asked around a bit.) It looks so simple, I might just give it a try in the daily driver. Hmmm…

Originally, the plan was to have a nice Galant to daily drive so I wouldn’t feel so bad about stuffing [195], but after the Jetta incident, what’s the point? It would cost me two grand to fix that rear end and it would still have a salvage restored title. Here’s to pressing on regardless.

Thanks to a closeout special, I got both rotors shipped to my door for $10 less than one would have run me at Autozone before sales tax.

Attempting to fire the engine only confirmed it. The battery was dead. Fortunately, my Galants are both stickshifts, so I left the key in the ON position, put the car in reverse, engaged the clutch, and rolled the car back down the driveway. I popped the clutch and… nothiiiiiiiiing. I pushed the old girl to the curb in front of my neighbor’s house and gave him a call to see if I could get a jump. No answer.

Deciding to just call AAA to come give me a jump, I locked the car and headed back inside to wait in the air conditioning. (It was already pushing 100°F outside at 9AM and pushing 3,500lbs of car around in a shirt and slacks pretty much demanded air conditioning at this point.) As I approached the front door, I reached into my pocket for my keys… which were still in the ignition of the now locked vehicle on the street.

FAIL.

Vanessa ended up leaving work to let me into the house, try to jump the car, and get me on my way, but it took two tries to get the car to stay running and, even then, I was only getting 10.8VDC at the battery terminals while the engine was running. Deciding the alternator had shit the bed, I hitched a ride in to work.

Last night, I spent a couple hours yanking the old alty out of [464], hoping to drop the “new” alty (belonging to [195]) in. Due to darkness, heat, and an exceedingly filthy work environment (clearly, I need to re-seal the oil pan), I called it a night when I discovered part of the alternator tensioner assembly had slipped behind the replacement alternator and I would have to pull it back out again.

Today, I bummed another ride to and from work. Pretty sad when you’ve got TWO Galant VR4s and BOTH are out of commission. Tonight I’m back out in the heat, putting this turd back together again. Hopefully I don’t end up having to replace the battery too.

• wheel
• brake pads (needed changed anyway)
• hub
• axle
• outer tie rod end

At this point, I think the problem is narrowed down to one of these:

• brake rotor
• lower ball joint
• inner tie rod end
• wonky LCA

It’s been a rough couple of weekends, as temperatures have sort of stabilized above 110°F…

$200 later, I have a new windshield, which is nice. I tried installed the black hood from [195] with front end damage. It was close, but no cigar.

Yeah, that hood hasn’t been on a car since 2007 sometime. Surprising that’s as bent as it is. I’m gonna try to straighten it back out and re-use it. Hoods might not be terribly expensive, but they’re a PITA to transport without a truck.

So right now, [464] is sporting the white hood typically installed on [195] (who doesn’t need it right now).

And this is just an idea I’m thinking of…

It was the TPS.
Anyone familiar with how the TPS (throttle position switch) works will immediately see what’s wrong in the image above. For those who don’t, allow me to explain. At idle, the TPS typically reads something like 10-15%. At WOT, it should read 100%. Makes sense, right?

For whatever reason, when ambient air temps have been over 70°F (more often than you might expect, I live in Phoenix), once everything under the hood got up to operating temperature, the TPS on [464] would do like a 180 on me, idling at 99-100%. All those lines in the lower half of the graph above? All TPS. All on its own. My foot never touched the gas. I just let it die. (Top graph is RPM.)

TPS was replaced last night.
This morning marked my first problem-free commute in about three months. Throttle response seems better too! (lulz)

What else is new?

• * [195] is still at the shop getting caged (low priority).
• * [464] went in for a tire balance and alignment last weekend
  • * tire was said to be too far gone (I disagree)
  • * outer tie rod said to be shot, preventing alignment
• * This weekend, [464] will be getting new outer tie rods and a tire rotation
• * This weekend, [464] will be getting that one tire balanced
• * [464] is little over 2wks out from attending the High Desert Trails Rally in Ridgecrest, California. (wo0t!)
• * [195]‘s engine is cleaned, painted, and ready for reassembly!

Curtis offered to ship me this set for free, as I was looking to trade a set of the USDM clear lenses with another GVR4 owner in Norway. I shipped my clear lenses to Norway on my dime, Curtis hooked me up with the reds on his, and our new friend in Norway is excited to pay it forward at his end.

And here’s a crappy picture with only the reds lit.

When the car is at operating temperature, it will begin to misfire so erratically, the ECU can’t keep pace and it stalls. Almost entirely random, the only consistency I can come up with has to do with the ambient air temperature being above 70*F and the coolant temp being soundly into normal operating temperature.

• Could it be the CLT (coolant temp sensor)? A/F is calculated based on airflow and coolant temperature. If the CLT signal is dropping out, the ECU could be getting mixed signals, jumping between 190*F and -40*F, for example. Fuel delivery goes crazy, the lean/rich pendulum sways wildly back and forth, before flooding out.
• Could it be the fuel pump getting old? I’ve heard of high mileage fuel pumps getting hot and flaking out, but it’s definitely not dependent upon fuel level – the issue happens on both nearly empty and nearly full tanks.

So, because I was out in the garage the other evening tinkering while waiting for a phone call from a Canadian rally driver (Gearbox interview), I decided to chop out and replace the obviously worn out AC switch connection. That clearly hardened bit of wire harness is also what connects the CLT to the ECU, so it’s still a prime culprit.

Here’s a couple more shots. It was a quick-n-dirty repair. I’ve got a properly done up piece to go in shortly, but I wanted to see if this had any affect on the issue – it didn’t.

At first, I thought it might be a wheel bearing issue, but being the perennial slacker that I am, it took me almost two months to spend the 30 minutes raising front and rear to check for any obvious slop in the bearings. Much to my surprise, there was none whatsoever. Everything felt just as solid as I would expect. I even took the time to share pictures of the tires on Twitter to make sure I wasn’t missing out on subtle signs of tire scrub from a loose tie rod end or something like that.

With all four corners appearing solid and true, I’m thinking this is probably a case of a lost wheel weight. Another item for the #todo list.