It was March 21st, 2003 when Karen picked up her new Acura RSX, and it is still with us as it enters it's eighteenth year, still looking good and driving great.
It has been a most reliable car.
Friday, March 27, 2020
Year Eighteen
It is day twelve of the lockdown and we spent the day gardening, pottering about, washing the car and walking. It's time for happy hour and beers are being applied as adequate "self medication" in these odd times.
It was March 21st, 2003 when Karen picked up her new Acura RSX, and it is still with us as it enters it's eighteenth year, still looking good and driving great.
It has been a most reliable car.
It was March 21st, 2003 when Karen picked up her new Acura RSX, and it is still with us as it enters it's eighteenth year, still looking good and driving great.
It has been a most reliable car.
Thursday, March 26, 2020
Wednesday, March 25, 2020
Day Ten - Tea Brake
The man versus car tournament continued today, I woke up this morning looking forward to the next challenge, the front brakes. It's been about a month or so with a very slight squeak coming from somewhere, at first I brushed it off as being other cars, but then after a while I concluded that 115000 kilometres was probably a good moment to inspect, and replace, the front brake pads.
I have to comment that I don't particularly use brakes a lot, which is why these seventeen year old pads have lasted so well. It was last summer, on a thirty kilometre drive back from Victoria, I noted I hardly touched the brakes at all. I expect that my style of driving over the years has resulted in the original set of pads lasting so long.
After some research I decided on ceramic disk pads from Wagner and my preference was for pads with a separate, shouldered shim as opposed to a bonded shim. I ordered them from Amazon for grand total of C$40.10 including taxes and shipping, they took three days to arrive.
The job took a couple of hours, which included an odd half hour at the start with the camber of my driveway working against me actually jacking the bloody car up correctly in the first place. I also used the job as an opportunity to rotate the tires front to back so I was using a secondary jack. This second set of tires have about 45000 kilometres wear now, so I hope by rotating them I'll squeeze another few years life out of them.
As I drank my cup of tea, had a biscuit, I was transported back in my mind to the times in the 1970's when my dad would be working, in the driveway, on his Austin Taxi for the bi-annual test. I would take him, and his good buddy, Freddy, a cup of tea so they could have a break from the hard work, usually involving the front brakes and the king pins.
It is difficult to convey how happy doing stuff like this makes me, as I was working on the car, Karen was working in the garden, transplanting shrubs here and there for the new season, but she took some time out of her activities to put the kettle on.
She is a lovely lady and she makes a wicked cup of tea.
I have to comment that I don't particularly use brakes a lot, which is why these seventeen year old pads have lasted so well. It was last summer, on a thirty kilometre drive back from Victoria, I noted I hardly touched the brakes at all. I expect that my style of driving over the years has resulted in the original set of pads lasting so long.
After some research I decided on ceramic disk pads from Wagner and my preference was for pads with a separate, shouldered shim as opposed to a bonded shim. I ordered them from Amazon for grand total of C$40.10 including taxes and shipping, they took three days to arrive.
The job took a couple of hours, which included an odd half hour at the start with the camber of my driveway working against me actually jacking the bloody car up correctly in the first place. I also used the job as an opportunity to rotate the tires front to back so I was using a secondary jack. This second set of tires have about 45000 kilometres wear now, so I hope by rotating them I'll squeeze another few years life out of them.
Featured above, Vintage Canadian Tire trolley jack and fixed stands from the early 1990's. It was two thirds of the way through the job and the back passenger side tire had been rotated and I knew the finish line was in sight, so a cup of tea was deserved.
The two 12mm bolts were loosened on the caliper.
The piston was cleaned and lightly greased and cycled using the old brake pad and a four inch clamp. I found that my resolve and strength were beginning to flag at this point as I was approaching the two hour point, however, I was about ten minutes away from completion and I found some enthusiasm to get the job done in a methodical fashion.
Canadian Tire clamp from a set, door crasher from the mid 1990's.
As I drank my cup of tea, had a biscuit, I was transported back in my mind to the times in the 1970's when my dad would be working, in the driveway, on his Austin Taxi for the bi-annual test. I would take him, and his good buddy, Freddy, a cup of tea so they could have a break from the hard work, usually involving the front brakes and the king pins.
It is difficult to convey how happy doing stuff like this makes me, as I was working on the car, Karen was working in the garden, transplanting shrubs here and there for the new season, but she took some time out of her activities to put the kettle on.
She is a lovely lady and she makes a wicked cup of tea.
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
Day Nine - A bridge too far.
The walk of choice today, one of the few left that has not been highlighted as a social collection area, was on a four kilometre stretch of the Galloping Goose, up by the trestles, one of which is not accessible at the moment as it is being repaired, we thought we'd take a nice stroll on a slightly damp day, to see if anything was happening up there.
First bridge, the healthy Charters River Trestle.
Rain, rock and moss. A beautiful sight on a quiet, serene walk.
Karen and myself, ignoring social distancing rules. She loves that hat, and I love her.
The bridge too far, the Todd Creek Trestle, which should be repaired later this year.
First bridge, the healthy Charters River Trestle.
Rain, rock and moss. A beautiful sight on a quiet, serene walk.
Karen and myself, ignoring social distancing rules. She loves that hat, and I love her.
The bridge too far, the Todd Creek Trestle, which should be repaired later this year.
Saturday, March 21, 2020
Day Six - Man versus Headlights
I decided to (finally) address my frosty headlights, as usual, did a little research, paid twelve bucks for the compound and assembled the necessary tools...
Meguiar's Ultimate Compound, an old sponge, a piece of old pajamas.
The headlight before the process :
A quick wash with soapy water, then two or three passes with the compound, applied in a circular pattern with the sponge, a little bit of pressure.
It was ten, or fifteen minutes of circular polishing with the compound, then a couple of washes with plain warm water.
I was very pleased with the results, after less than an hour for both headlights they seemed as good as new. I had used about a third of the compound, so total cost around four dollars.
Job done.
Meguiar's Ultimate Compound, an old sponge, a piece of old pajamas.
The headlight before the process :
A quick wash with soapy water, then two or three passes with the compound, applied in a circular pattern with the sponge, a little bit of pressure.
It was ten, or fifteen minutes of circular polishing with the compound, then a couple of washes with plain warm water.
I was very pleased with the results, after less than an hour for both headlights they seemed as good as new. I had used about a third of the compound, so total cost around four dollars.
Job done.
Thursday, March 19, 2020
Day Four - The Widget
It was a beautiful day, a perfect day for swapping the widget.
The blower in the Acura stopped working a few weeks back, so off to the interweb for some research and various videos led me to an educated guess that the resistor unit had failed, there was a more expensive solution, but I like to try the cheap version first.
I ordered the widget from Amazon, it was quite cheap at $24.98 including taxes and shipping.
The HVAC blower is located under the glove compartment on the RSX, so I popped the cover off to access the component. The resistor unit is there in the upper left hand side of the photo, and as usual with this sort of thing, a bugger to get access to.
Just two screws held the unit in, but removing them was rather fiddly. I would rate this as an easy job but I found removing those two bloody screws to be a test of my sanity. I had no idea at that point that putting the things back in would be double the fun.
The old widget, hopefully bad widget, was then pulled out of it's mount and this gave me good access to test the new item before wrestling those two unwilling screws back in.
Original part on the left, generic replacement on the right.
There was a moment of apprehension as I plugged the replacement in, I turned the ignition and by golly, the blower was working again. the gamble to the try the cheapest solution worked.
Happy smiles all around.
This is the original widget with the cover removed. I was going to do some testing with my multi-meter, but I realised that would be time wasted, it was much better to find and test a beer.
One last thing, when I removed the cover below the glove compartment, all three plastic snap things shattered, well they were over seventeen years old and quite brittle. Anyway, I replaced all three of them with a familiar household item, white plastic drywall E-Z anchors that work very well.
The conclusion to all of this, I understand that Honda would charge five hundred bucks or more to troubleshoot and fix something like this and I get away with twenty-five bucks and a stiff back for a few days. It was an educated guess that the electronic part would have failed over seventeen years and not the motor, it was also, excuse the pun, the path of least resistance to buy the cheap part first and try it out.
Job done.
The blower in the Acura stopped working a few weeks back, so off to the interweb for some research and various videos led me to an educated guess that the resistor unit had failed, there was a more expensive solution, but I like to try the cheap version first.
I ordered the widget from Amazon, it was quite cheap at $24.98 including taxes and shipping.
The HVAC blower is located under the glove compartment on the RSX, so I popped the cover off to access the component. The resistor unit is there in the upper left hand side of the photo, and as usual with this sort of thing, a bugger to get access to.
Just two screws held the unit in, but removing them was rather fiddly. I would rate this as an easy job but I found removing those two bloody screws to be a test of my sanity. I had no idea at that point that putting the things back in would be double the fun.
The old widget, hopefully bad widget, was then pulled out of it's mount and this gave me good access to test the new item before wrestling those two unwilling screws back in.
Original part on the left, generic replacement on the right.
There was a moment of apprehension as I plugged the replacement in, I turned the ignition and by golly, the blower was working again. the gamble to the try the cheapest solution worked.
Happy smiles all around.
This is the original widget with the cover removed. I was going to do some testing with my multi-meter, but I realised that would be time wasted, it was much better to find and test a beer.
One last thing, when I removed the cover below the glove compartment, all three plastic snap things shattered, well they were over seventeen years old and quite brittle. Anyway, I replaced all three of them with a familiar household item, white plastic drywall E-Z anchors that work very well.
The conclusion to all of this, I understand that Honda would charge five hundred bucks or more to troubleshoot and fix something like this and I get away with twenty-five bucks and a stiff back for a few days. It was an educated guess that the electronic part would have failed over seventeen years and not the motor, it was also, excuse the pun, the path of least resistance to buy the cheap part first and try it out.
Job done.
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
Day Three - Not in the House
It is day three, no outside contact regarding shops, bars or restaurants, so we took advantage of the incredible weather and did some time in the garden, weeding mostly, of course, when weeding you have to put them somewhere, so I dug a quarter of the compost heap out.
After gardening, we went on a neighbourhood walk in the glorious sunshine, said hello, at a distance to some neighbours, then arrived back home for happy hour.
Happy hour with house pants on, you cannot beat it.
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
Day Two
A little early morning shopping, minimal interaction with humans, then an afternoon walk down on Whiffin Spit.
Tide was out.
Tide was out.
Monday, March 16, 2020
Day One
A neighbourhood walk today, beautiful weather, the sun came up this morning.
We have decided to take things more seriously regarding the coronavirus and we have decided to limit our exposure to other people as much as possible over the next 10 days. This is not because we are already sick, but we believe we should avoid contact with others, within reason, to ensure that we reduce our chances of contracting this thing.
We will call this day one of our own personal protection plan.
The main change in our behaviour will be to stop going to bars and restaurants until the 27th March, although we will review that decision in a weeks time. We will not change the way we shop for perishable items, milk, eggs etc, mainly as we live in a rural setting and we can limit our contact with people at the local store. We will not change our daily walking habits, because the health benefits of walking far outweigh any slight chance of catching the virus from passers by.
We will stay home more, do some gardening, play some games, drink some booze, Netflix and chill.
Canada is closing it's borders to anyone other than Canadian citizens, and for now, US Citizens. We would hope that will change in the weeks to come as we're not impressed with the US response to the pandemic, plus it is not in most US citizens financial interests to "own up" to having the virus, and because of that, things probably will get out of hand very rapidly across the border.
It is not the end of the world, the sky is not falling, but we should all do our best in reducing the rate that this virus is spreading, mainly to take the pressure off our medical facilities.
We have decided to take things more seriously regarding the coronavirus and we have decided to limit our exposure to other people as much as possible over the next 10 days. This is not because we are already sick, but we believe we should avoid contact with others, within reason, to ensure that we reduce our chances of contracting this thing.
We will call this day one of our own personal protection plan.
The main change in our behaviour will be to stop going to bars and restaurants until the 27th March, although we will review that decision in a weeks time. We will not change the way we shop for perishable items, milk, eggs etc, mainly as we live in a rural setting and we can limit our contact with people at the local store. We will not change our daily walking habits, because the health benefits of walking far outweigh any slight chance of catching the virus from passers by.
We will stay home more, do some gardening, play some games, drink some booze, Netflix and chill.
Canada is closing it's borders to anyone other than Canadian citizens, and for now, US Citizens. We would hope that will change in the weeks to come as we're not impressed with the US response to the pandemic, plus it is not in most US citizens financial interests to "own up" to having the virus, and because of that, things probably will get out of hand very rapidly across the border.
It is not the end of the world, the sky is not falling, but we should all do our best in reducing the rate that this virus is spreading, mainly to take the pressure off our medical facilities.
Sunday, March 15, 2020
No One is Safe
Another two victims of the Gnomovirus 19 found in the garden this morning.
Be safe everyone, if you have any symptoms, be sure to stay at gnome.
Be safe everyone, if you have any symptoms, be sure to stay at gnome.
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