I’ve tested spark by running the engine and slightly unplugging the wires one at a time and seeing how far out I can draw the arc. The cylinders that draw the longest arc and makes the loudest snapping sound are your best performers. I’ve never tried that with COP, but I imagine it would work.
For that I would end up in prison in our country…
Ohio here. That’s not bad for 2006. Either ND uses less salt than us, or it wasn’t up there nearly its whole life.
Did you say how many miles are on it?
Not sure if I said the miles or not. It has 180k miles right now.
Yeah, once I got under there I feel better about the rust. It is there for sure but nothing super worrisome that I noticed. Mostly the door sills and fender wells.
Mostly I want to stop the rust from getting any worse or spreading.
Here are the head units I am considering. Think I am gonna rule out the FM modulator simply because the stock radio even with a CD doesn’t sound that great and add in the modulator and bluetooth adapter on top of that and I am guessing a cheap china radio would be at least the same quality if not better but be easier to use.
For the cheap end there is the basic single DIN head unit:
Then you can step up to the double din touch screen unit:
There are dozens of versions of both of these with minor changes to the design. Just wish I could find a good review of them. The ones I do see are mostly positive but don’t give much info on sound quality.
My ’05 Prius is just over 200k. The underbody rust on mine looks worse, although it’s still just surface rust. Your fenders and wheel wells are worse than anything anywhere on my car though. But, the Escapes and Mariners and Tributes I see from that era all have the wheel well and fender rust problems. Certain models I just always see with rust in certain places.
Yeah, apparently from searching these models had a known issue with rust in the fenders but ford would never do a recall for them.
There’s a guy on YouTube that goes by PS that completely redid a Ford Focus; including an auto to manual transmission swap.
New bumper install and all kinds of other stuff.
Might give you some tips on how to.
I do realize that, but to me Mazda bears just as much blame for not standing by their products, and there are plenty of other car manufacturers I like. This wasn’t a cheap car (premium V6), and it’s not like it took 14 years to rust out. Both rear wheel wells were replaced at great expense just outside the 3 year warranty and the dealer couldn’t have cared less.
This thread inspired me to go check out the current status of the rust bucket. I was taking a few photos and decided to have another peek under the front carpets, and well… yeah. If you’re wondering, the car had all-weather mats installed from the day it was picked up. And yes, that is the driveway you can see through the floor.
Wow, the idea of something like that even being possible is foreign to me lol.
You can have your own Flintstonemobile!
Note to self : Take out an insurance policy on Bob .
Getting a little more work done before work today. Changing the oil and good news! The oil leak is not nearly as bad as I feared. After sitting all day yesterday and driving around it lost just a small spot under the car and the dipstick is the same as yesterday. That could honestly be due to the Seafoam in the oil right now.
I am changing the oil now and will see how things progress with fresh oil.
All of the fluids on this thing are shockingly bad.
Also thinking about just getting a whole set of coils for $25 on ebay and replacing them all. Kinda doubt that the ebay ones would be worse then stock since those are so bad already.
This is a fairly if not totally incorrect assertion; I won’t buy any electronics or things that go in a circle from anything other than OEM providers. Cheap ball joints are probably OK, but cheap coils are not.
See the reviews on Amazon of the knock off coils.
lol, I have actually had the opposite experience. Good luck with most electronic items from aftermarket companies but had an aftermarket balljoint fail on my 4runner (got really lucky with that one).
I have used cheap coils in the past with good luck and the reviews on amazon seems to say they are a good buy as well:
In fact the lowest score I saw for the cheap ford coils was 4 star. That is generally good enough for me considering a single coil from the parts store is $40+.
In other news, I am getting close to being able to track down the low power at sub-2500rpm issue (still got to flush the brake fluid and replace the tone ring).
I did a quick test today with brake cleaner to try and find vacuum leaks but even with a vacuum line removed and spraying the cleaner into the hose, I could hardly tell a difference in the idle, so not looking like that will work on this engine.
I might try to adapt my old boost leak tester to this intake to find leaks that way. Any other suggestions?
You mentioned the PCV hose can be an issue, I see what would normally be a PCV on the valve cover with a hose going to the intake. But based on you saying reach under, this is not the PCV I am guessing?
I tried looking under the intake manifold but only saw the oil lines, no vacuum lines?
I did a smoke test.
Back at the interiors shop I used to hang out at, this one guy lit up and I asked if I could have the cig after he was finished with it. Gave me a strange look, like I’m one of those bums who picks butts out of ashtrays for the 1-2 puffs left (I don’t smoke).
Anyhoo, he hands it to me, I started the car, and just went near each hose I could find with the smoke wafting up near it.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Fwoop! Sucked in all the smoke that came by, right near the nipple on the throttle-body. Yep, other end was right near the #1 cylinder.
Figured just tightening the hose might’ve worked for a while, but I wanted to replace it with the Right Hose, so took it to a nearby shop, figure they’d have the right kind of hose (vacuum line, so wouldn’t collapse like a non-vacuum hose would, and the right diameter, etc.). That’s when I got raped.
Pointed to The Hose In Question, said, “I just want that hose replaced, k?”
“Waaaait, waaaait, let’s do this right…”
I was expecting a few bux for 50¢ worth of hose, maybe 10bux or so for “labor” (shouldda just bought the length of hose and did it myself), and that was it.
OBD scanner, all of 10sec to get a reading. (“Engine diagnostic.”)
Smoke Machine… probably had to pay off his investment. Blew smoke into the system and you’d see where it was coming out, vs the opposite (what I did).
Charged me a couple hunnert bux, and I was furious. Never went back there again. Lost a longtime regular customer over something stoopit like that. Practically threw the money at him and got outta there before I said something particularly nasty (but deserved).
Same crap like one inspection. Cat broke apart internally and ended up being quite hollow. Would ring like a bell if you rapped it. Still passed smog-tests for at least 4yrs ’til the state literally halved the amounts of CO. Odd results coming out, like too much NOx as if running hot/lean, and too little O2 as if running cool/rich, something like that. Guy’s giving me head-shakes, “Ooooh, this can be a tough one to diagnose, let alone fix…” rubbing his hands with glee at a nice expensive job of trying this and trying that (ka-CHING! $$:money_mouth_face:.
“Replace the cat.”
“Uhh, dunno if that would fix it, as there are other things…”
“Replace the cat.”
Rinse, repeat.
Finally got him to just shut up and replace the cat. Passed with flying colors.
Yeah, no cat at all, except the shell, and it still passed smog for multiple years.
B’harni help any Little Ladies who go to shops like these… they probably see a woman dressed in a money-bag like you’d see in a car2n, and just ask for a blank check.
lol, I try my hardest to never take my car to a mechanic after being one for a few years. For one thing I can’t stand other people working on my cars, they might not do it properly lol. For another I know how they can overcharge.
About the only thing I will take my car in for is alignment and tire swaps since I don’t have the tools.
Decided to start flushing the brakes and the first drum I tried the bleeder broke off 
Luckily it is not leaking so can still be used but not sure what to do now. The fluid is really bad but might just have to go with the turkey baster option since the brakes still work just fine.
That’s my biggest fear, that something’d break off, and the car’d be incapacitated and need to be towed somewhere. And the smaller and stoopiter, the worse.
Yeah, this level of rust takes a different approach to under car maintenance.
I am a massive fan of preventative maintenance but looks like I will need to put the brake fluid off for another time. The brakes work really good so not super worried, just dirty fluid.
With that out of the way, only major thing left that I know the solution to is the tone ring which is supposed to arrive today or tomorrow.
Then I have to start looking for the cause of the low power and the airbag light (assuming the tone ring fixes the 4wd and ABS lights).
Been driving it the last few days, I have to say, it is really nice to drive minus the low RPM issue. The oil leak also does not appear to of returned except for a small drip that I can live with and even that might go away after the next oil change when it no longer has the seafoam in the oil.
It really likes this first oil change.