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Finished up the 944 S2 cab the other day, now it is off to be detailed. Removing the belt tension using special tool P-blah blah blah. Old belts off. New belt on. People usually get stumped removing the crank pulley with basic tools.  This needs to be removed so you can get the timing belt on/off.  The bolt is torqued to 155ft/lbs so you aren’t going to get it with a little wrench.  Here is my removal tool, and the …

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Trying to get cars schedule to get in an out this week, so far so good. On the chopping block: 944 S2 cab maintenance (timing belt, hard starting issue, oil change, brake flush, etc) 996C4S brake flush and inspection for the Hastings DE this weekend Boxster brake job 996TT oil change 996TT Header installation 930 Annual maintenance 996 Cab top issues 928 front engine job Already Chopped: Cleared the airbag light on a 996 which just had the passenger seat …

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Back to work

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Just got back from a vacation to the grand canyon, quite the trip.  Something we have been working on for about a year now, as the journey involved getting there in a 67 cadillac fleetwood.  Good times, great friends, and a fairly uneventful trip mechanically.  We blogged our journey starting last summer when we picked up the car. It is multiple pages, so you have to click “older posts” at the bottom of the page if you want to start …

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Been getting a lot of requests for work on the daily drivers, some of it is pretty easy to handle and I don’t have a problem helping out.  Had a little civic in the other day for brakes as they were starting to make noise.  Swapped in front pads and rotors, and checked the rear drums/shoes which were still good, and the car was on it’s way. Inserting bolts in the rear to pop the drums off for inspection. Here …

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Had a buddy bring over his beautiful M3 the other evening to change the gear oils.  Not a big job, but a littler tricker to get in the air than the Porsche’s are, but after a couple hours he was back on the road.  Most of the transmission experts I have talked to in the German auto world recommend changing your drive gear fluids annually.  The transmission says lifetime fluid on it, but that is a joke IMHO.  Nothing kills …

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Audi DE 2010

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Some more footage of the Audi club DE last weekend at HPT.  Friday was a pretty nice day, Saturday was pretty rainy, and Sunday was a mix of both.  Good times were still had by all 🙂 Something seemed to be missing? Even Steve looked puzzled…… Wait a second, this isn’t the Lin Burney Arrive and Drive program….food from a bag?  Paper plates?  What is this nonsense about…… After lunch, they decided to figure out how to replace a pollen …

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Nissan Sentra?

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Yesterday a good friend (and my shop supervisor babysitter!) called up and said she was having stalling problems in her Nissan.  She had taken it to the shop, and they weren’t really sure what was wrong with it, but recommended starting with a tune up (mileage was about 125k).  Correct diagnosis and correct plan of attack IMHO.  The kicker, was the tune up was going run almost $500 to replace the spark plugs, cap, rotor, and clean the throttle body.  …

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A friend of mine has acquired a new to him 993TT which is in excellent condition.  Very low mileage, well taken care of, but the previous owner installed a set of Fabspeed mufflers a few hundred miles before selling the car, but the problem was, the tips just wouldn’t line up straight.  While we could get them somewhat close, it was still like the tailpipes had walleye vision, with one tip pointing one direction, and the other rotated and pointed …

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Ooops, I said it, the dreaded IMS issue of the boxsters and 996’s.  This weekend we tackled upgrading the IMS bearing in a buddy’s 1999 996 C2.  The IMS issue is the main cause of failures on the engines found in the early boxsters and 996’s.  The early design was a dual row ball bearing, followed by the later design of a single row bearing.  Typically failures are seen on lower mileage cars that are driven sporadically.  The theory for …

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Brake light on?

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Is your brake pad light on? Car making odd grinding noises, worse when you hit the brakes? Weird fluid seeping out underneath one of your wheels? Might want to get your brakes checked! This is from a BMW that came in yesterday.  I have never in my life seen a rotor this bad, it was so bad the piston actually popped out of the brake caliper because it was over extended!  No wonder the car didn’t stop!  Seriously, brakes are …

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