Proof that checklists don't equal awesome

Bought a new car. All my friends have turbos and Volvos and turbo Volvos so I bought a turbo Volvo since they are supposed to be the awesomest thing ever.

No. It pretty well sucks. Cluster says I am getting 35mpg, though, which might be enough to make up for sucking. And the heated seats work, which is kinda nice.

What is interesting is that it's a Mitsubishi chassis, shares a remarkable amount of car with the Evo III, which the Internet tells me was one of the best Group A cars from when homologation actually theoretically meant something, and one would think that multiplying turbo Volvo times Evo would equal some sort of singularity of awesomeness. One would think a lot of things.

But, hey, over 30mpg, and the heated seats work...

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2014 07:23PM by Pete.

Bun warmers are nice this time of year. I know nothing about the newer east/west Volvos. What series is it? I would have guessed the would be sleeping with VW rather than Mitsu..interesting.

Early S40, huh? My SIL had one, traded a pristine 940 GLE on it, I wanted to cry. For a car that allegedly has Lancer underpinnings, it just sucked. And I always ended up fixing it, because any time she took it to the dealer it was $1,000 for a $200 fix.

Makes the 850 GLT I'm driving look like the Fire Breathing Monster. At least my wife's is the one year that has a little turbo and makes Audi-like noises. And my deceased mother-in-law would be appalled at the 97 mph triple pass I made with it tonight on the way to meet my new nephew.

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Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

Well some of the later chassi are glorified Frod Fuckus...Kevin Hawkinson was going to buy a FWD whater about 3 years ago but he said "You gotta put the fwd one up on alift next to that awd one so I can take piccies"...So he brings the thing---and piccies over and we compare it to piccies I have under Fucci....whole rear suspension is same cheesoid 1/8" stampings, looked like same front end stuff....he was thinking years ahead....but dumped the car a while later for an Outback---he and his nice wife do a lotta camping year round so OK.

Pete, what did you buy the car for? daily driver?

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

We have the Ford Fawkus version... in AWD with turbo and goodies... 2005

It sawks. but it's fun.

Alternator non dealer shop replacement cost: 600-800 (200 for part). First time took me nearly 3.5 hours. Now I can do it quicker... and since then have done it even faster on a friends. But pretty much need to remove either front rad support or half the intake manifold.

A/C clutch magnet died (after I de-shimmed it for 2 years) No replacement available. new compressor 6 bills. Got a low milage wrecker unit for 175 and swapped the clutch and magnet

Local shop wanted 1200 to change whole rear end when AWD stopped working in winter... (uses Haldex) replaced hydraulic pump for 300

Struts went bad in under 100 000 miles, need to change replacements already.

CD player busted when purchased. Took used car dealer/shop 2 years to locates the right one (no aux jack!)

on second set of front rotors due to warping issues... I don't drive the DD hard...

Stupid plated 3 piece lug nuts are awful, and $20 each... almost done swapping them all to something more sane.

Same friends wipers stopped working... stupid design lets water come off windshield into unsealed bush... rusts, seizes. Remove entire assembly, press (ie shop press) out wiper pin and lube...

Both cars had the trunk stop opening due to worn through hot wire to switch which activates the trunk release 2" away from where the button is... why is this not mechnical????

Ball joints bad? buy whole control arm...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2014 11:53PM by Mad Matt F.

Quote
john vanlandingham
Well some of the later chassi are glorified Frod Fuckus...

Yah, it was the only way to get the 2nd-generation Focus in the US. Well, that and the Mazda 3.

This is the one before that. From what i gather, it was the only place you would ever find a four cylinder "whiteblock". 1.9l and 9psi of utter indifference!

Quote

Pete, what did you buy the car for? daily driver?

Pretty much. I have this VW that I've been putting together for a year or so now and it's still not done (hell, engine is still powering a stand, head is holding down a shelf, trans is collecting dust in a basement somewhere...) and the running VW that I have is not really winter friendly anymore. So i had to buy this thing.

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/13/2014 12:13PM by Pete.

I misread the title. This is proof that chickens do equal awesome!

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Grant Hughes

How old is the lil one, and do you have a chicken coop? Jeana and I are thinking of buying some chickens .. with how many eggs we go through should save us millions ...

or at least a dozen or so bucks

She is getting close to 2 1/2 years old or so. Smart little whip. New little girl will be two months in ten days. Man they're fun but a little exhausting at times.

We got our chickens free from a neighbor and a real ghetto urban coop. When we moved I built a new one. Basically a 4X6 shed with a 4X6 run attached to it. Cheated on the gables and just used a 2X12 and cut the angles since it's not a wide span. Dug a few trenches and laid some 4x4 skids down, base of run has 4-5" buried 2X10 around the exterior to discourage digging. Linoleum floors, lifted nest boxes with easy access doors, hanging food inside, tree branch roosts, and a large access door for feeding and cleaning. Run has a big gate on the small end that fully opens to let them roam around the yard when I am feeling nice.
We get more eggs than we can eat with five chickens. 2-3 per day most days. Then again, we haven't been eating as many eggs as we should lately.
If you want "organic" chickens you are probably better off with store bought. The only "organic" feed around here is like $40-50 a month. The stuff I feed is like $12 a month or close enough.

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Grant Hughes

Snow and dried out old performance tires and a dickhead on the pedals makes the stability control light flash like a disco ball. It's pretty amusing. The ABS, at least, is pretty unobtrusive. It does just enough and no more, which is far nicer than some cars I could mention.

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

Quote
Pete
Snow and dried out old performance tires and a dickhead on the pedals makes the stability control light flash like a disco ball. It's pretty amusing. The ABS, at least, is pretty unobtrusive. It does just enough and no more, which is far nicer than some cars I could mention.

The one thing I will give the slush box in the 850 is that the winter (3rd and 4th only) mode does work better than expected. The traction control and ABS work when the cold-soldered leads in the ABS brain decide to make contact. Need to get a new soldering iron (again) and fix that.

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Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

So Volvos are subject to that too? Interessant... I've only ever seen that issue crop up on Jettas. Yes, specifically Jettas, not Golfs or Passats or Audi anything, just Jettas...

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

The "I didn't realize it was a turbo" comment that the seller made (he bought it to flip it) just clicked today, after I topped up the tank with 93.

Hey wow, the engine likes it! Now it goes all BOOOOOOOOOOST and feels like a 3 liter V6 when it wants to...

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/14/2014 06:35PM by Pete.

Had that issue with both wrong-wheel-drive Volvo's I've dealt with…"why does it sputter when I floor it?"

"Because you're poisoning it with garbage gasoline!!!!" That said, I've also had to talk down people who run nothing but super in their Chevy Cobalts…run what the ECU deems appropriate!

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Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

Wasn't sputtering, just not making as much power.

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.