Ownership Verified: Lancer of DOOM!

Man, I am not putting steelies on the car. Call me vain, but..........yeah. They also seem to bend pretty easily when rallycrossers use them, but yeah.

I tried making a claim to the city about the last probably-bent wheel/horrifying shake up front after hitting a plate a block over, but they denied my claim. They claimed there's some state-level statute that shields them from liability, which sounds like horsecrap: https://twitter.com/stefthepef/status/1006333004061528064

If your negligence bends my wheel, you should pay me for what you broke!!!
 
Here is some lawyers' opinions: https://www.attorneybrianwhite.com/w...lar-damage.php

There is no state level statute that shields them from liability. In fact, the TTCA actually makes it *easier* to sue them, not harder. The only aspect of it that helps them is that it allows them to set short limits in which to file a claim or proceed with litigation. Austin is 45 days.

https://gesinjuryattorneys.com/can-s...jured-pothole/

Austin, like many other cities, will reject most claims not backed up with a lawyer (which shows that you're more than willing to sue the hell out of them and cost them even more money than settling with you; showing up with a lawyer is also how you get out of speeding tickets in a lot of larger cities in Texas and most other states for the same reason - you are clearly going to cost them more than they will be collecting from you in fines so they will cut their losses.) This includes but is not limited to measures like lying to you about the state of affairs, attempting to delay you to run out the clock on claims, etc.,etc.

More info here: https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclope...laims-act.html
 
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Ooh. Yeah, I thought it sounded like intimidating BS to me.
 
I think we need to get you a Mitsubishi Pajero Evo to park next to it, especially if you are going to keep doing that.
 
Blind_Io said:
I think we need to get you a Mitsubishi Pajero Evo to park next to it, especially if you are going to keep doing that.
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DELICA
 
I won't turn those down, but the Lancer does all of that just fine. Maybe it needs a snorkel?
 
Drag racing is one of those forms of motorsport where there are literally no barriers to doing it but there's never a damned schedule opportunity when the mood strikes.
 
Is Coco still pounding on the Lancer?


View: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cd1ghXWJBp1/

Yes. I'm sad because that warning came on after only about half an hour of farting around on track the other day. :( I could've sworn it used to take like, an hour of pounding on it in super-hot temps before that message came up—and only then, it's only happened once or twice. Now it takes like, half an hour of pounding on it in merely hot temps.

I'm mildly concerned because I think its fluid was only changed, what, last year? Or maybe 2020? It was sometime after the pandemic hit, so hasn't done much since then. I'm just now getting back to hooning it on the regular.
...
AND HOON IT I SHALL!

It survived an autocross and a drive to Mom's afterwards with no drama, but yeah. The heck?
 
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Doesn't your model have a CVT? You might want to ease off on the hooning with it getting up there on miles, those transmissios aren't known to be particularly robust.

My Xterra will pass 200k this weekend and I had to decide to back off on punishing off road driving because I'm not in a spot to replace it in the current market.
 
Yep, it's a CVT. I need to ping a transmission shop and ask what's up with this message showing up again.
 
Welp, my Lancer is now 12 years old! For its birth-week, we tried figuring out what that infernal squeaking sound is that's only gotten worse lately. No such luck. It seems to get worse when the right side is under load, and almost sounds like a brake pad that isn't popping all the way off the rotor. We found nothing. Even the brakes seemed to be quiet when we jacked the car up.

What we did find, however, is this:

View: https://twitter.com/stefthepef/status/1577084540975083520

Bonus pain: it's inspection month, too. I don't know if those tires will even pass an inspection given that the passenger side one is pretty close to the wear line. Welp.

Frickin' a. I can't win.
 
Torque it to spec?
 
Welp, I decided to get the Lancer fun tires as a quasi-mental-health thing since I'd made a little extra that month and am staying afloat considerably better than I was in prior bouts of unemployment. I need something to do besides mope at home and hope I get hit by a bus, and the Lancer is still fun. We even got it to clear the code just in time to pass inspection, so while that's still a problem, I've got another year to fix it.

I decided to try out the new RE-71RSes and shoot, I really like them. Fantastic in wet, garbage weather, too. These might end up on the Porschelump the next time it races, too. I'm curious as to whether they just don't make a ton of noise on track, or if I'm not hitting tire squeal in the corners now, though.

Turns out, I'm terrible at tracking my car now! Haha. I have no idea what I'm doing. I sent it a little too hard through Turn 6 at Harris Hill and added a few big cone scuffs to the front bumper from taking out the little marker cone at the edge of the track. 6/7 is the turn they redid to be shorter now, and welp. I just Leeroy Jenkins'd right into there like it was the older layout and hit the left-side cone with the right side of my car, haha.

It's fun to suck, though. 10/10, A+, five stars, highly recommend. I didn't stay out long, but goshdarnit if it wasn't the most productive afternoon I've had in a while with freelance stuff. I've got new brake pads that need to go on soon, hence the shorter session. Still, that helped a ton brain-wise.

As for the cone scuff, it'll buff out. This is FAR from the first time I've eaten cone, so like, I know this, haha. Bbbbbbut I really do need to dedicate more time to the Lancer. It's starting to feel like a physical manifestation of how badly my life is going. It's still a great, fun car! It just needs a glow-up. I need to polish up the headlight, replace the cracked fog light, replace the trim piece inside that got broken when we tried replacing the O2 sensors, and get the damage to the bumper, side skirts and steering wheel fixed. Some of the little dents could use pulling out, too. The steering wheel got scraped a bit by the tire shop that installed my tires, so I just can't win. They're paying for a fix, though—I just need to find a shop that does interior work well. (And exterior. I was really dissatisfied with the shop that did my bumper the last time it was rear-ended, so welp. No one seems to know a good body shop in Austin.)
 
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Well, darn. I came out to my car last night and the window was stuck down. The motor whirrs and seems to pop past the bottom of the window without lifting it back up.

I don't really know how it happened. I went to a dinner banquet, and then noticed that either my window or a door sounded open en route to an afterparty. I figured I might've not shut my rear door all the way when I tossed my purse in. I hit the power window switch just in case and didn't think much about it as it wasn't a far drive. When I left the afterparty, though, I saw that nope—that rear window's been open a while. Nothing's missing, and thank goodness it wasn't raining. Everything was where I left it. I just have a rear driver's side window that's stuck down. Nothing I did could fix the issue.

So, I got no sleep. I have really aggressive varmints in my yard that have been tearing into my yard furniture for nest material. Even though I taped a sign over the window for the rest of the night in an attempt to keep varmints out, I was terrified that I was going to come out to a car full of ripped-out seat foam. That didn't happen, but it's staying in a garage and I'm driving the 411 until I can get it looked at.
 
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Some minor updates:
- Got some help with the scuff, but I found that there's a little crack forming in that yellowy headlamp. Boooooooooo.
- Got some help putting my window back up. Turns out, the little clip that keeps it on track just failed! Nothing broken, nothing stolen, no varmints got into my car. It's just permanently up until I can find a replacement clip, and I'll just barter lunch for installing it. Neat.
- I may have some clues on what that squeak is! It feels like I've got a wheel bearing going out on my rear passenger-side wheel, plus I definitely think my front driver's side brake caliper hangs a bit, so I'm just going to replace the dang thing. So, those need fixing ASAP. Who knows if it's the same squeak I've had for years that only I seem to be able to hear. Would passenger-side wheel bearing explain why it seems to squeak harder when the right side's under load? IDK. It's a mystery wrapped in a conundrum.
 
I THINK I REALLY DID FIND OUT WHAT MY ANNOYING MYSTERY SQUEAK WAS! It was a wheel bearing. It was almost certainly the wheel bearing. After I swapped out the right rear wheel bearing, it's just been sooooo quiiiiiiet.

Maybe there was enough play in the wheel to rub against the parking brake as it drove along. Maybe it was the bearing itself making an annoying high-pitched squeak as I rolled down the road.

There's also a chance it could've been the front calipers hanging up, as the slide pins on both were WAY under-lubed when I installed new pads and rotors.

Checking over the Lancer just gave me a longer to-do list, though. :( Some of the boots on my tie rod ends are torn, the boots on my caliper pistons are also torn, plus the boot is torn on one of my half-shafts. I need to get under it and have a check-over on the other rubber bits, but it's enough to get around for now. It's about time for a suspension/rubber bits overhaul on this car, anyway. Oh, and I have a CD that's stuck in my CD player that's not coming out now. Welp.

The new window regulator (I can't just buy the single clip that broke—Mitsu sells it as one big, stupid assembly) is on the way, though, so at least that should be getting fixed. It desperately needs at least an interior detail, if for no other reason than I don't like having had masking tape over that window switch for this long.

Regardless, it survived the Lemons Rally as the backup car really well. We lucked out not taking the parsh as it turned out to be balls-cold and windy all weekend, so having windows and no roll cage to climb over was awesome. We kept calling this "luxury rallying" by sheer merit of having a reliable car with working HVAC and more than a single speaker for the stereo. Haha.
 
ninjacoco said:
Regardless, it survived the Lemons Rally as the backup car really well. We lucked out not taking the parsh as it turned out to be balls-cold and windy all weekend, so having windows and no roll cage to climb over was awesome. We kept calling this "luxury rallying" by sheer merit of having a reliable car with working HVAC and more than a single speaker for the stereo. Haha.
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You know, there is something to that. I had *just as much fun* the one time I wound up in the BRZ as on any other rally.
 
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