Stakes

Well, I've been considering and weighting the sides of the scales. I haven't reached a conclusion. I just wish I could learn to like the Probe more in the time we have left this year.

Mainly one of my big issues is the difficulty on controlling the throttle. It's so hard not to hit full boost, but if you don't go in the boost zone you're going slug speed. I found out that the boost pressure is actually raised by a solenoid in the stock system, it is now about 0.55 bar and the lowest boost the wastegate spring activates at is something like 0.4 bar.  That sounds great for daily driving in the rush hours. But what if I want to go faster than that?


Then I came out a way to utilize the switch in the interior and some information over the internet.

(RIDE ADJUST; SOFT NORM SPORT)

 (not my car and not my picture)
 
Turns out I'm not the first one to not like driving with constantly high boost. Some people buy Electronic Boost Controllers but thats way off my budget and interest. I then researched more how the pressure adjusting system works, and came up with this;

Here is the link to full pic if unreadable. Link to full pic

Anyhow, if this works (I'm now trying to get it proof read by the wise ol' in the Probetalk forums) I would have a switch inside to switch between 0.4 bar (lowest possible), 0.55 bar (stock system), and whatever I set the Manual Boost Controller (MBC) to (probably 0.7 bar). Now that would be awesome.

I've also been learning to control my accelerating foot to control the pressure of the turbo and it's very hard to do but it makes the driving more to my taste. I found myself heel toeing without even thinking it in this car as well, so thats a good sign of adaptation as well. Maybe I'll grow to like it, I sure hope I do.. So much money and time has been spent, that it'd be quite crazy to turn around at this point. Well unless I really don't like the car, then it's just very unfortunate.

Anyhow, I'm going to move to a new garage more near me in Thursday, pics from there!

It's a devil

WARNING: If you don't generally have interest in reading my thoughts and writings, there's basicly nothing new here. Driving the Probe has simply got me thinking, and this long ass story is the result. So skip this post, if you will. :)



Well, the summers practicly over and I just couldn't get sleep tonight. So I decided to write up on what it's been like to be a Probe driver so far.

A lot of people call their red cars the Red Devils, even if its a fuckin red Nissan Micra, which has always seemed utterly stupid to me. But for me, my only red devil is this Probe. I've sacrificed so much money and time to this devil in order to get to this point where she's running, and she only wants more parts, more gasoline, more throttle and speed, and ultimately she will burn my driving license for sure.

Initially, upon my first few drives I had some huge problems to adjust to driving the Probe. I didn't enjoy it that much, thinking back, the handling in corners and the clutch is quite strange, it's a damn big and pretty heavy car so it's a bit hard to maneuver in tight spaces. I don't have the hifi system in Probe which I have in Mazda so I don't get my daily dose of loud music anymore. In fact, the only thing that felt worth it all was the acceleration. 

When you press the throttle, and turbo kicks in, it is a feeling that is very hard to describe and unlike any other car I've driven before. The horsepower number in the technical sheet doesn't give any justice to what it feels like to accelerate this beast. I'm thinking there must be some tuning done to the car which I haven't noticed, but the boost is stock 0.5 bars, and unless its a bigger turbo or an altered engine, I don't know what it could be.

What I do know is, having drived 325 BMW, 2.7 V6 H-Coupe, 2.0 T5 Volvo V40, Audi A4 1.8T, and many others, this car is way beyond them, in terms of raw power, no matter what the papers say. And I'm not saying this to provoke debate or to praise my car; in fact, I've come to the realization that powerful cars aren't really my cup of tea. They say with power you get more hungry the more you eat, that just doesn't seem to apply for me. I'm a little scared of the thing as of it is, to be honest.. With all the wheelspin, understeer, pulling etc, and I have the balls to admit, as of now I couldn't nearly have 99% control over the damn thing like I think I do with my ever-so-faithful Mazda.

Because, in the end, it's all so very pointless. If you mean to follow the Law, that is, and which I do. I do admit sometimes going to the gray area where I might get a small fine, and sometimes in the countryside where it's safer, might go a step further than that. But a car like my Probe just doesn't have much to give within those boundaries. She only wants more and more throttle and speed, empty corner in the traffic lights turning to green; in a blink of an eye you've reached 60mph, you know the limit is 40mph and you just wanna go faster and faster, and it's almost like the Probe wants you to do just that. And in the end, what seperates my Probe from all the cars I've driven is solely the acceleration.

And I know very well how it's gonna end, I'm gonna end up losing my driving license and paying thousands of Euros for my moment of absolute freedom. I was quite close to doing that earlier today.

 And to sum it all up, I'm not very satisfied. I've come to realize, the love I have for cars and the hobby is, and has always been, because of the people involved. I miss those days when we would drive around, goof on the local gas station until the morning dawned. We would make our cars "better" when not doing that, installing better audio systems, exterior or interior eyetreats or just fixing them to keep them on the road. We would sometimes help each other and do things together, and when someone had something new in their car, it was all very exciting.

During these 3 years I've had this project, we have all grown and scattered. I could pick up my phone and call those people, but those meetings would be awkward in a way or another, and to be honest my life is super busy with work, relationship and garage, so it would probably lead to nothing good. As do they.

 All in all, it makes me think what really matters. And with this new light I can't anyhow justify buying a 800 euros coilover set to my car. Which is just a quarter of the full money I need to somehow finish the project in my mind. The car needs a new paint, front end is still the same old (brakes, discs, suspension links). The interior is not close to being ready, the audio system would cost me about 500. I want a different front bumper and the windows tinted.

And frankly, this car could never be a car I'd simply drive. The pleasure of owning is a lot more in working on it and creating something perfect.


So. I'm at a crossroad here. I'll either finish the paint scheme in the interior and do a make over for the car this winter, in order to sell it in the spring, or then I will keep working on it. I will try to drive it as much as possible now, so I could find out which is the better way for me.

I do love cars though, so I would probably buy a small sporty car, a newer one that doesn't need a complete overhaul and could be used around the year. I'm thinking Top Gear Car of the Year, Ford Puma (laugh ahead) or similar. And maybe buy a gokart when the Laws of the Street are choking me. Cos' honestly, for me it brings more enjoyment to push a small agile car near to its limits, than flirt around with a small fraction of capabilities of a larger, more powerful sports car. I guess I always knew that of myself, but thinking back I probably thought having a turbo sportster would somehow get myself more involved in the community.


And now it won't cease to amaze me how much we car-bug bitten men use money and time on our cars. Who of us has ever came with a good answer to the most obvious question, "Why?"

Conclusions

So, back from work. Anyhow, I got it all together, but it was a Sunday, so I had no biz to the inspectors as they were closed. I'd come back in two weeks.

The next day I couldn't hold it so I drove that hundred kilometres again to get it inspected. I had 1 hour until the inspection. After such a long time I took the Probe to the sunlight and headed towards the station.. And thats when the ANTI LOCK came on! The ABS was working very bizarrly, I think there's air in the pump or something. Anyhow, I mended it.. in a way, in a record time of 30 mins I managed to get the brakes working normally and the locklight to co-operate with me. With shaking hands I drove that car to the nearest station, and only a few minutes until they closed managed to get my car in the inspection queue.

Failed. The damn front brake was dragging just a little bit, didn't notice it, and it's one of those drags that would've begone'd after a lil bit of pumping the brakes. Furious, I drove back to the garage and opened the brake caliper, flushed the piston with oil by pressing it in and out and wiping everytime and finally greased that and the guide pins. Turns out, there's no dustboot in the caliper, either it's missing or doesn't belong there, but that pretty much explains why it dragged. Time to buy them Subary 2 piston calipers next year I guess.

Well, by the time it was fixed, all the inspection stations were closed obviously, so I headed back home, and prepared for some torture, knowing the car would be ready to go but not having any cash at all to go to the city my garage is at to get it inspected and on the road.

Luckily, my good friend Toni decided to help me out, two days after we journeyd together in his Omega to the Garage City again and went for inspection... But the brakes were un even in the front now.

Luckily, I don't know why really, maybe it was within the tolerance, I got the damn stamp! Finally, after 2 years. We fueled her up and gave her some new wiper blades, washed in a machine (sorry buddy) and by then I was halfway late from work.

So there it is, sitting in my parking lot, working.. pretty good.

Whats bothering me is a stupid clicking noise coming from the dash, it varies by speed so I think its the speedo cable. Also one of the LEDs I soldered started flickering, and the steering wheel is one notch to the side. The front suspension is ready for retirement and the attachment of the exhaust still worries me. Overall, I don't trust the car much yet, but it feels good to drive it, finally.. After two years, so many hours and euros later, it's finally in this condition. :)

The paper says "Inspection result : ACCEPTED"

Also it's way too quiet in there without a stereo, but like I said, I'm completely broke right now, I will probably fix my USB powered speakers in there for the rest of this year.. :D So far the dump valve has been my audio. ;) Then it needs a proper wax and I will get the window tints later on.

Anyhow, I'm probably gonna write a little bit about driving the car later on and conclude this year somehow. I'm gonna be a bit busy with my girlfriends Nissan and my daily/winter ride Mazda the upcoming months.

Oh and I found a garage in the city I live in, if it all works out I'll be moving my stuff there in October so I will post about that. You could expect for more stuff to happen next winter. :)

Anyhow, thank you for reading my blog, it's been a pleasure. My summervacation has begun ;> Enjoy it while it still lasts!

The lot

A lot has happened. I haven't been updating the blog despite having spent a lot of time in the garage lately, but thats mainly because I simply haven't had the time, and I tried to rush things after I got the ABS sensors so didn't take time to shoot a lot of pictures or anything.

So last friday I headed to the garage, I had a lot to do until the inspection stage. I soldered the LEDs to the steering column in a zippy, quickly got the interior together;

Unfortunately one of the LEDs stopped working later on. I used the LEDs I previously ordered for T5 socket, they were very easy to remove the pockets, just straighten the legs and pull out. Saves a lot of trouble since I didn't have to solder the resistors. :)

Then I put the ABS sensors in, and changed the oils. Changing the oil is always a confusing task, no matter how good I get at cars it never goes quite like in the movies. I ended up with about half a litre of oil on the floor, cos' I used an old canister which side had been cut open as a draining pan. Then you can easily open the cap and pour it through there to the waste oil container. Unless you have 5L of oil in the can and a way too small funnel. :D

Lucky I wore my paps jacket ;D Also I didn't have any new copper gaskets unlike I thought I would, but then I remembered an old folks trick; if you heat the copper ring to a red glow you can use it perfectly again;

Well I almost got it red with that "lighter" :D But it worked.

Anyhow, I need to rush to work now so..

To be continued. :)

Celebration

It's been a while, but today is a great day. I just picked these up from FedEx

Those are the thing I've been waiting for the last 18 months. And now they're in my hands. My dear fellow Mark from FordProbeStore had _some problems_ and couldn't deliver them successfully to my doorstep in 12 months, and coulnd't refund me in 3 months. Luckily, when I was about to make a claim to European Customer Community (ECC) I stumbled upon a phrase, which made it possible for me to ride the car this year after all.

Because let's face it, Mark would've never ever refunded me or have got me the parts. WARNING to all of you associating with him (www.fordprobestore.co.uk), I strongly suggest that you use a credit card when purchasing from him, especially if it's a big order like mine. I know that he is the only merchant of some of the parts for Probe in the whole Europe, but he has some big issues running the business that I don't have energy to get into. You can imagine the amount of emails we exchanged during this year and I got it all; lies, uncaring replies, sorry excuses..

Anyhow, I got my money from my bank since it turned out in a case of undelivered goods, they are responsible to refund me. So THANK YOU Nordea (my bank), I will always be your customer. One day the money just popped into my card account and they even paid me interest. I then ordered the parts from RockAuto for nearly 100€ cheaper than what Mark asked for them, and after 6 days they were in the Customs. THAT'S proper customer service to me!

Fact is, I try to use the services of small companies; in exchange for expert tips and good customer service, I can pay a little more. But lately, I've got shittier service from small companies than from a vending machine. I think it's because they are struggling and at some point they just want to give up, I know how hard it is to compete against those massive companies. But you people running the small companies, you gotta hold on to what makes the big difference between you and the big companies; passion, knowledge, experience and customer service. If you can't give that, you are no good to anyone.

Anyhow, I was near by my garage for other reasons so I used the little time I had to prep the car a bit further. I sorted all the electrical gremlins I had, while I had the seat off for ABS unit maintenance I also set my power steering to 10% tougher steer. Yeah, you can do that in a Probe GT ;>

I also put the blower control unit back in and put together the interior a bit further. Then I had to leave. What I still need to do is solder the LED lighting to the buttons which allow other light color than green to come through, change the oils, put the rest of the interior in, install the ABS sensors and hope it all works fine.

I will have to save some money for the inspection, but by the end of this month I should be driving the Probe. :)) Quite handy, since the inspection on my Mazda is running out and that guy won't get a stamp just like that, exhaust broken, 6 big corrosion holes, rear axle corroded, loose suspension sounds coming from the front..

Anyhow, shake that bottle and make it pop!

No moneyhhh

So, the cars almost ready, we finally got the paint to not boil so its pretty good now. Apparently, its the semi-clearcoat that fucked up the paint surface. Unfortunately, some of the parts turned out evenly gray, luckily they are quite easy to remove afterwards. Yeah, free tip, go with clearcoat or don't bother at all. Well, I don't know about the matt lacquer but the semi gloss varnish is absolutely BS.

Also everything is pretty much installed now, only the cluster column which will have to hold for a while as I'm completely broke right now and can't even afford to buy LEDs to the switches. As for the other parts such as the blower controller, they are fitted with this stupid green shine through laminate which is impossible to remove and resulting that the only lights you can basicly shine through it is blue and green.

See how gray those panels in the middle turned out? The name of the color is Matt Black.. Looked alright outside the car though, but when you put them next to an actual black object you see the difference.

Also, turns out the ABS warning light isn't working anymore now that I took off the jump cord. Ehh..

Well, I wanted red lighting and as it is not possible I'll just put them back the way they were for now. Maybe some day I'll try to print some new graphics on plastic sheets and see how that works out, but right now I only want the car on the road, as I'm at almost all time low on motivation.

No way to shine red light through this, as green film doesn't let red light through.

So, another issue I should probably discuss is Mark from FordProbeStore.Co.Uk. He still hasn't returned my money after two months of waiting for a refund and 10 months of waiting for the parts. I took the matter to my bank as it turned out that since I paid with credit card, they can probably refund me, but after 3 weeks they haven't handled my case yet. When this is solved, depending on the outcome, I feel it's my responsibility to talk about it a bit more, but until then I'll just try to hold my horses.

Another good tip; Always pay your internet purchases with either of these, as the law says that in case of undelivered goods, they are responsible for refund.


The reality is that unless I get my money from somewhere, I'm not going to drive the car this year again. I just don't have that much money these days, I'm paying a big ass rent from my apartment and there's not that much overwork at the department I've been working since January, so the income is a lot smaller.

My hopes rest in the bank, so I could at least drive a month this year. That way I could probably get my motivation back up and perhaps next winter would be a lot better than the last one. Looking back at it,  I don't feel I accomplished much. Also, I should try to get the garage nearer so I could go there during evenings and so.

Nothing much

Heya, boredom update. I did visit the garage a while back for a few hours, but mainly struggled to get the power windows working again.. In the end one of the ignition connectors had got disconnected prolly @ installing the dash, weird that it only affected the windows as far as I saw.

I got the LED bulbs, which turned out to be mostly useless. The white LEDs in the gauges made the needles glow in a stupid hue, so I put the halogen bulbs back. I'm prolly going to try and experiment with red and orange bulbs, for better effect and to lose that stupid tone of the normal halogen bulb in places where it shines through.. probably painted halogens though as that kind of light seperates better than LEDs which is essential in proper dash lighting.

The reds in the blinkers look fab though. :) I removed the green plastic arrows and cut some clear thick acrylic there, looks alright. :)

This is how far I've got with the installments. The center console and various plastic bits in place, still need to paint some and work out the lightning for the buttons in the steering column, as turns out they are not T5 but some very strange bulb and I will probably have to solder radioshack leds in there.

I got this baby in place, I need to paint the piece still but it looks good there now don't it. :)

Mainly, I'm just waiting for a refund for the ABS sensors so I can get the car on the road. I just can't get together that kind of money easily.. That said, I'm heading to Bangkok as it's my 9 days summer vacation now ! :D

So smell you later ! Enjoy the summer, its almost halfway through here.. or so they say. :)