What Did You Do With Your Kizashi Today?

[Ronzuki]

The K's gauge cluster is one of the nicest I've ever owned/experienced. Simple, intuitive, elegant, and very functional. No obnoxious colors, lights or in-your-face gimics. The only thing undesirable is the daytime running light indicator always on.

great pics.

I really liked the red dash my SX4 had. I wish the Kizashi had the same. I don't care for the red on the climate and sound system side and the white gauges. I've wondered how to make them all red.

meh...wife's SX4 cluster/dash doesn't do it for me. Screams low-budget everytime I get in it...day or night. Then again, it was a $19k car.

[LPSISRL]

Wow. Sounds like a nightmare.
Years ago, I realized that a magnetic pick-up tool was very useful for engine work. I've had one for years and it's been very useful for picking up dropped screws and bolts. I used it the other day for some engine work on the VW bus.
Also, what's your mileage again? How dirty was your throttle body?

I'm glad the intake is made out of plastic or I never would have retrieved it. I had cleaned the throttle body a couple of months ago to cure the rough idle and the infamous RPM drop when coming to a stop. (CVT models) A deposit builds up where the butterfly valve meets the body. It's enough to restrict air flow and cause issues. Last time I made it pretty clean and the RPM drop went away. I was very surprised to see the ridge of deposit back so soon. I've read that it's caused by fuel blow-back when shutting the engine off. The back side of the butterfly has deposits on it while the front has none. I'm wondering if the brand of gasoline might have something to do with it. I should probably change brands and see what happens.

[KuroNekko]

Wow. Sounds like a nightmare.
Years ago, I realized that a magnetic pick-up tool was very useful for engine work. I've had one for years and it's been very useful for picking up dropped screws and bolts. I used it the other day for some engine work on the VW bus.
Also, what's your mileage again? How dirty was your throttle body?

I'm glad the intake is made out of plastic or I never would have retrieved it. I had cleaned the throttle body a couple of months ago to cure the rough idle and the infamous RPM drop when coming to a stop. (CVT models) A deposit builds up where the butterfly valve meets the body. It's enough to restrict air flow and cause issues. Last time I made it pretty clean and the RPM drop went away. I was very surprised to see the ridge of deposit back so soon. I've read that it's caused by fuel blow-back when shutting the engine off. The back side of the butterfly has deposits on it while the front has none. I'm wondering if the brand of gasoline might have something to do with it. I should probably change brands and see what happens.

What brand and grade do you use?

[LPSISRL]

Wow. Sounds like a nightmare.
Years ago, I realized that a magnetic pick-up tool was very useful for engine work. I've had one for years and it's been very useful for picking up dropped screws and bolts. I used it the other day for some engine work on the VW bus.
Also, what's your mileage again? How dirty was your throttle body?

I'm glad the intake is made out of plastic or I never would have retrieved it. I had cleaned the throttle body a couple of months ago to cure the rough idle and the infamous RPM drop when coming to a stop. (CVT models) A deposit builds up where the butterfly valve meets the body. It's enough to restrict air flow and cause issues. Last time I made it pretty clean and the RPM drop went away. I was very surprised to see the ridge of deposit back so soon. I've read that it's caused by fuel blow-back when shutting the engine off. The back side of the butterfly has deposits on it while the front has none. I'm wondering if the brand of gasoline might have something to do with it. I should probably change brands and see what happens.

What brand and grade do you use?

I use 89 octane and I get it from a Kroger station but maybe you get what you pay for. It's already priced the same as the WaWa across the street and then there's the 3 cent discount when I plug my Kroger number in there. Prior to that it was pretty much 7-Eleven gas. Maybe I should dump an additive in there every once in awhile but I'm mostly of the opinion that it's snake oil. I'm not sold on using high octane as the computer will adjust the mixture anyway negating any benefit of the slower burn.

[KuroNekko]

I use 89 octane and I get it from a Kroger station but maybe you get what you pay for. It's already priced the same as the WaWa across the street and then there's the 3 cent discount when I plug my Kroger number in there. Prior to that it was pretty much 7-Eleven gas. Maybe I should dump an additive in there every once in awhile but I'm mostly of the opinion that it's snake oil. I'm not sold on using high octane as the computer will adjust the mixture anyway negating any benefit of the slower burn.

Maybe try a top-tier gasoline for a while and monitor any differences in the throttle body. By top tier, I mean brands like Shell, Exxon, BP, Chevron, and a few other big names. They tend to use formulations with more detergent additives, even in their lower octane grades.

Personally, I get gas when I need it without much loyalty to brand. I actually avoid Costco and Wawa simply because they are popular and I hate waiting in lines to get gas. However, I do use a can of Seafoam as a gas additive at every oil change.

[LPSISRL]

Last night I was driving home and going around a very dark exit ramp. No a single light. The second exit of the clover leaf. The lane was narrowed by cones and as I came around I could see off to the left the high intensity work lights illuminating some weird contraption like a small crane with a hacking tool on the end of the boom. It was swinging away hacking a tree apart. As I approached, pieces of the tree were being slung everywhere and across the road in front of me. Almost like a cartoon. I had no alternative but to drive through. As I did, I heard a loud bang into the left side which I assume was a large piece of the tree that was being destroyed by this Godzilla thing. No place to pull off to check. No markings on the trucks or the hulk to identify a company to report damages to. When I got home and checked it out in the garage, I found... Nothing! I can't find even the smallest mark I could attribute to the monster attack. I checked it out in bright sunshine and still can't find anything. This has me baffled. I'm sure at some point down the road I'll find it. But for now I'll have to be impressed on how tough my Kizashi and it's silver paint can be when it wants to. So let's see... In the past week and a half I hit a cone that broke my side marker light, dropped a screwdriver down my intake and had a huge chunk of lumber hits me on the side but leave no marks. However, the cone damage was minimal, the screwdriver retrieved and the log left no marks. I'm trying to figure out if I'm lucky or unlucky.

[Woodie]

I'm trying to figure out if I'm lucky or unlucky.

Or overdue? Tread lightly

[golftango]

I've been "feeling" this grinding/vibration in the steering wheel between 50-65mph. I attributed it to a possible wheel bearing or axle as they yanked all this out when the did my oil pan seal and the input shaft bearing last July and Nov. I dropped by the dealer, they brought it on a test drive, couldn't find anything. Asked if I wanted to go for a ride with the tech, I agreed. 20 mins driving, tech couldn't feel anything. The service advisor was talking about charging me an hour diagnostic fee when the tech came in and said they put it on the lift while getting it up to speed. Another tech, with the help of a Mechanic's Stethoscope, found a center carrier bearing making some noise. Part on order. Is this something they could have stressed/broke with the aforementioned work?

[Marcov71]

Finally, got around to changing my headlight bulbs on my gts....what a pain in the a$$!!!

[Ronzuki]

Is this something they could have stressed/broke with the aforementioned work?

Center carrier bearing? For what major assembly? Does one of the axle shafts have a center carrier and bearing between the output and the wheel hub? If so yeah, they could have damaged it during the R&R process. Had a perfectly good CV joint boot torn once by a monkey that was too lazy to tie the lose shaft end up, as opposed to letting it dangle, so as to not to over flex it.

One of the center crank bearings inside the engine? If that's what it is, did they "inject" the problem? Other than all the bearing caps are accessible when the pans off, I don't see how replacing a pan seal would cause a center crank bearing to start making noise.

I know the translation can get lost sometimes between what foreigners call parts in their descriptions that show up in parts diagrams and what we refer to them as here in the states. The term you used sounds to me more like a mid drive shaft hanger bearing term. The Kiz's rear driveshaft is pretty long, don't know if it has a mid carrier and bearing though. I don't see how that would have been affected by the work they did.