The Aspire is all legal for the road now. The mechanic at the inspection station didn't seem to mind that the reverse lights only work when I beat on the gearshifter. Must be a bad switch down there. I topped off the tank with 91 octane fuel (at 1.139 cents per liter!) and poured a bottle of Lucas UCL in the tank. The tank took about 24 liters from 1/4 tank to a bit over the full mark. I've driven close to 100 miles today, and the needle is between the full mark and the 3/4 mark. The first thing I noticed about the car, it's really slow! It could be normal though, I've been driving my 88 Celica with 115hp and a 5 speed for about 5 months so maybe I'm just spoiled for horsepower. I wanted to adjust the timing, but I couldn't find the yellow refernce mark that's supposed to be on the crankshaft pulley. I may also be looking at replacing the timing belt. It mostly sounds simple to replace the belt, but removing the inner and outer crank pulley, plus the crank sensor trigger ring sounds difficult. I still have a clunk in the front end and some wandering and general steering looseness problems that I guess 2 junkyard replacement struts didn't fix. I've been told by people online that it could be something simple as bad tires, can't really see that though with 4 almost new winter tires, it could be tie-rods, or balljoints, swaybar bushings or something else. I guess I'll take the car in to Canadian Tire for a front end inspection and go from there. I also seem to have a loud roaring type of sound coming from the rear. I'm thinking either it's wheel bearings or bad brake drum. The drum makes a type of grinding sound at lower speeds, and once I get up to 45-50 mph, the grinding sound is replaced by the roaring sound. The handbrake needs some adjustment. If I pull the handle up as far as it will go it will hold the car pretty well. New brake shoes plus some adjustment at the handle will take care of that. My brakes need to be bled, my dad cracked a rear brake line trying to remove the left rear strut. The master cylinder leaked out completely before we could get a new section of brakeline on it. It was getting dark by the time we were finishing up and we only bled the one wheel, so there's probably some air still in the system. That makes me think that the front left caliper which didn't seem to grip at all when I had the front end up in the air, the wheel off and the car running in gear may have some air in it. That's what I'm hoping for, it would save me a bit of money. Oh yeah, Canadian Tire wants 27 bucks for an air filter for the Aspire. Ridiculous!
BTW: darkdan, I go by the screenname Infinitrium over at fordfestiva.com
BTW: darkdan, I go by the screenname Infinitrium over at fordfestiva.com
