Intrepidation

With the Intrepid its just matter of taking off the upper radiator support bracket, and then you have loads of room to access the (visible) locking and adjusting nuts for the two belts. I hate this short days and no garage space to work in.

So, since it was actually above freezing today and the rain had ended, I decided to talking the badly worn alternator belt on the Prizm. First let me say, if I ever met the engineer in charge of the engine bay design I'll kick him in the balls. The front of the engine is so close to the inner fender that I can barely fit my hand between them. This makes getting a ratchet onto the locking bolt extremely difficult and annoying. You can't see the bolt, you have to fee l around for it. Once I got a ratchet on the bolt, it moved in tedious one lick increments because there's so little room to move before hitting either the pulley or the a/c lines. So I loosen it, then loosen the adjuster bolt. This is again extremely annoying because you can't actually see the bolt, and because the ratchet comes into contact with the radiator. So I loosen that fr what seems like forever, and get the old belt off. Get the new belt on two of the pulleys but I can't get it on the last one. I tried pulling it over the pulley, I tried loosing the tensioner bolt more, I tried using a screwdriver to get leverage, which then resulted in the screwdriver slipping, tearing part of the belt, and my hand into some part of the car. So now I've wasted 2 hours of my life, I imagine ruined a new belt, its dark now, and for not a damn f@#king thing. Changing a simple belt shouldn't be this difficult. And it's supposed to snow tomorrow and then be cold from there on out, so not only did I waste money on a belt I've ruined, but I'll end up having to waste more money getting the shop to do it. :rage:

Those features have been around for as long as I've been a member.

The mod bug is an infectious and awesome curse.

Because to the consumer's mind, warranty = peace of mind. It's why they buy chap new cars instead of nicer used cars for the same price. Not offering a standard warranty is a PR disaster IMO.

It's coming along nicely!

Red LaCrosse CXS (looks terrific, even if it was covered in salt) White Equinox LT Black 4Runner

Poetry in motion.

From LX Forums Twas the night before Christmas and caught at the light. Up pulled a rumbling V8, and no cops in sight. I will try, I will try, with this little 4 banger. To beat this damn Magnum, with it's big HEMI motor. As the light goes to green, and I pull like no joke, The Magnum erupts in a big cloud of smoke. "Rev Smasher!, rev Twister!, rev Stroker!, rev Blitzin!." I yelled to the names of my 4 VTEC Pistons. Racing ahead, I'm the star of the action, but I'm in deep ****, when that Magnum gets traction. I grab second gear and the RPMs sing, And my mirror is blocked by my shopping cart wing. I now hear the roar of the big HEMI gaining, All I can do is keep those 4 pistons straining. In a second the shockwave hits with a blast, My chinese stickers go flying, now a thing of the past. Don't bother with third, cause now it's too late, Just try to act cool, like you can relate. Looking up at the tail lights, as they get smaller, The driver backs off just to give me a holler. "You can't win em all" he says in a fling "and you may not win any, in that silly thing!" I smiled and revved as he pulled out of sight, With my new mods tomorrow... I'll win the next fight. Then next night we meet, once again on the road, My new coffee-can exhaust, blows steam in the cold. I revved up again, this time sure I would win, But that damn Magnum, kicked my ass again.

These articles must be making FOG jump for joy. Indeed, it's good to see people finally beginning to see Toyota for what it really is: just another automaker (except the cars they make are boring and/or ugly).

Agreed on the too small part. I'm thinking about using an oversized filter for the 3.5. On 2.7 engines the filter is located on the oil pan, facing down. Any longer and it'll be kissing pavement. On 3.2/3/5 engines its mounted in the side of the engine, making it possible to use a bigger filter. You can see the normal filter on this 3.5 being yanked out of an Intrepid. An the oversized filter on the replacement 3.5...

And yes, this is a new forum dedicated to this sort of thing, since there's quite a few of us who dabble with computers.

Well the time has come to give my comp some major upgrades. Besides the additional 2 gigs of Ram (for a total of 4) and the GTX260, I haven't really done anything to upgrade it since I built it in `06. That's all about to change: GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard AMD Phenom II X4 925 Deneb 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 Scythe DFS123812-3000 "ULTRA KAZE" 120 x 38 mm Case Fan (for improved intake) Plus I've got Windows 7 Pro 64 bit ready to go on the new HD. Should be a worthwhile upgrade over my Athlon 64 X2 4600+, which is the bottleneck of my system these days. That processor, the motherboard, the 4 gigs of Corsair XMS Ram, my 320 gig HD, and my old 7950GX2 will go into a new computer for my brother, which should be a nice upgrade over his current computer, which is my very first build, running a mighty 1 gig of Ram, an 80 gig HD, an Athlon XP 2700+, and a GeForce 6600.

Fiber end caps and plastic tube sounds like extreme cost cutting. No thanks.

What I know is this: running Castrol GTX High Mileage oil and a Fram filter, the Intrepid always had a cold startup tick. When it was warm the tick would last a couple seconds, when it was below 50 it would last until the car was fully warmed up. With the RP oil and filter there is no startup tick when its above 40 and the tick is only present for a second when it's say, 17 degrees out, even after sitting for days. That's all I need to say goodbye to conventional oil and piss off to Fram.

Yeah I've heard they used to be good but the cost cutting and takeovers have turned them into mostly a joke.

The XG Fram is the only one I would consider. The others are just garbage. Facts are facts: cardboard end caps with poor fitting and bad anti drain-back valve seal design that leaks. Leaky seals are not "ok" The XG is decent but the other stuff has no place in my cars.

Good luck with the interviews, glad you;re finally ditching dial-up.

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The one we got from sears fit in the back of the Shadow with the hatch closed. Great little snowblower. A proper one, not on of those dinky 2 stroke ones.

Still snowing here. The cape an RI are the jackpot areas of this store. Around 2 feet for them. Up here its 10" to a foot. Not bad. Fluffy stuff too. Snowblower's ready to go when the snow stops.

The plot thickens. I wonder what the "impasses" were...

Static is awesome, snow as some call it. Been a long time since I saw "real" static (not generated static).

+1