The car thread

Disabled Account
Joined 2017
A new thread focusing on cars, not just focusing on audio but performance and luxury aswell.

We have threads talking about snake oil and various other things like the weather, so why not talk about our cars too? Sure this thread could be better suited for another forum dedicated to cars but we as a community don't know about each others rides. Hence why this thread exists. Thread also exists to prevent threadjacking of other threads to discuss cars, which occured in the snake oil thread.

If you are on-topic in this thread it means that you are talking about your cars and/or their audio systems. Don't necessarily need to talk just about the audio systems of cars.

BUT, don't make a comment detailing some insane mods which require specialized knowledge that is better suited/served by a dedicated car forum. This is mainly just got to deal with the members personal rides, what they look like, how they perform, etc. Would also like to hear about other members rides, performance, repairs, etc.

I have two rides at the moment. A Ford Falcon AU Wagon with the 4.0L Inline 6 engine and a Toyota Camry Vienta Grande V6. Think I'm going to improve the sound system in the Ford because the Toyota is a bit long in the tooth now and the Ford has 6x9's in the front doors.

Ford Falcon (AU - Wikipedia)

Just some history on the australian variant of the I6:
Ford straight-six engine - Wikipedia
Ford Barra engine - Wikipedia

I would love the V8 engine but I don't want the fuel consumption.
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1998 Audi TT Coupe 225(Mk.1 / 8n Quattro) in silver, 2 owners (first was a well-to-do lady) from new, 64,478k miles as of an hour ago.

Stock externally.
Re-mapped to 277bhp, 350cc injectors, S3 coils though it does have a special exhaust which includes a 'race cat' and it passes emissions / noise test with ease.
VDC (rear diff) mods so it runs roughly 55/45 drive split at all times.
Fully adjustable suspension / poly-bushed / -30 ride height f/r / stock 17" wheels and rubber / set-up on scales / data acquisition system.
Rear seat delete / battery in cab on floor over the fuel tank.
Daily I get 28mpg-ish which drops to 13mpg-ish when I give it some.

It's nothing special in the world of tuned TT's, just 'sorted to taste' and utterly reliable.
 
I currently own 3 cars, all stock. I tend to prefer factory components; if I upgrade a car at all, I tend to just replace with a different factory part.

My daily driver is a 2010 Ford Flex Limited AWD EcoBoost.
Ford Flex - Wikipedia
Ford EcoBoost engine - Wikipedia
This is a full-size 7 passenger crossover SUV with AWD and twin-turbo 3.5L 355 bhp.
We needed this size because we are 5, with 2 car seats and a stroller at minimum. I absolutely love it. This is a fat man's sportscar.

The 2nd car is a 2010 Ford Fusion SEL AWD.
Ford Fusion (Americas - Wikipedia)

The 3rd car is a 1998 Corvette Coupe.
Chevrolet Corvette (C5 - Wikipedia)
It's a great car, it has a removable top plus it came with both factory tops (solid & translucent) and has 345 bhp, but it has issues.
It eats batteries like crazy if you don't drive it daily. I first tried a battery tender and then an automatic low voltage disconnect. Still debating what to try next.
I also have the Achilles heel problem of this age of Corvette, a dead EBCM which is no longer manufactured by anyone and is overpriced on the salvage market.
So though I put up with the car, I would recommend against buying an early C5 to anyone, buy a late C5.
 
Disabled Account
Joined 2017
Nice. Ford Ecoboost is amazing.

I just measured the 6x9 depth and placement for the front speakers in my Ford AU Falcon and I could raise the speaker out by 16mm using an MDF spacer but it would conflict with the door trim, I could trim the door trim but i'm sure I would make something ugly.

Unfortunately despite this car being so large the speaker depth from bottom of the cage to magnet is only a mere 5cm, stocks were 5cm depth, 6cm if I encroach in on the glass, reading on the measuring tape was 6.5mm when it hit the glass and it went down to 6.2cm in some parts when I did a circle on the glass with the tape measure so I rounded it up to 6cm to be safe.

A good high power 6x9 with a shallow depth of 5 or 6cm is as rare as hens teeth. Even pioneer only makes a driver thats 69mm deep.
 
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Daily driver BMW 118d.
2l diesel with 118hp stock (probably chip tuned by previous owner) and manual transmission.
attachment.php

Fuel efficient and fun to drive, great runnabout.

For longer drives BMW 325i
2.5l L6 petrol 218hp and MT.
I have owned this car for 6 years and never had a more reliable car. I only had one breakdown when the electric water pump failed at 100k miles. Except for that, I have only changed oil, tires, brake pads and cabin filters. :)
This one have a quite good factory stereo. Logic 7 by Harman Kardon.
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Disabled Account
Joined 2017
Found out that the speaker size in my AU Falcon is actually 5x7 aka 6x8 so I will be able to make some MDF spacers for that size to convert to 5.25". I've got some Focal Polyglass 5.25" drivers with tweeters/splits that I want to use from an older project that never panned out.

Plus they have a huge heavy magnet on them which fits perfectly in depth and doesn't make contact with the window or its groove even when placed flush up to the metal of the door. Something that I couldn't say if I tried to fit a super-slim 6x8 or 5x7 driver in there.

Not entirely sure where I'm going to place the tweeters yet, I could put them onto the same MDF board that the main drivers go but I could also place them up near the pillar/mirror is located. If I put them up where the rear mirror/pillar is I can put the plastic cover back on to the door trim.

They should sound very nice indeed with vocals and midrange.
 
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Disabled Account
Joined 2017
I cannot find any information online about them as I've kept them for so long but they are marked with 5V2 and 5V3. and the tweeter looks the same as the TN-45.
Amazon.com: 5V3 Single - Focal 5.25" Polyglass Midrange Car Speaker: Electronics
Amazon.com: Focal TN-45 1" PolyGlass Series Titanium Tweeters: Electronics

Polyglass technology, exclusive to Focal, consists in applying molten glass microballs on a cellulose pulp cone. This process combines an excellent paper damping with glass rigidity. The rigidity index exceeds even that of a single skin Kevlar® and is almost ten times superior to one of polypropylene.

The mass/rigidity/damping ratio adjustment results in outstanding linearity of the frequency response curve, all from the inherent design of the cone. This innovation also greatly increases definition in the midrange.

Mounting Depth:2.5"
Magnet Diameter: 3.5"
Mounting Diameter: 3.5"
Overall Diameter:5"
Impedance: 4 Ohms
Frequency Response: 75-4,000Hz
50 Watts RMS Power Handling[
 
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Disabled Account
Joined 2017
Not at all. I'm just not asking for advice. Just keeping updates on what I've done and am considering doing to my ride.

I already know that an offset tweeter will require time differential so each soundwave arrives at the same time and I already know that I need a DSP to make sure the rolloff to each section occurs properly and to flatten the response by using a microphone.
 
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Disabled Account
Joined 2017
The ford falcon has lost oil pressure anyway so I'm driving the camry vienta at the moment. Its something that has only just occured in the last couple of days. Its leaking oil out the front of the engine. This is something which I thought was impossible on this series of Falcon (AU series) as the engine is supposed to have an overheat sensor on them which retards the timing to remove the possibility of warping the head.

A few months ago I replaced the oil pressure sensor and sealed it properly with a new sensor and with locktite on the threads, doing such a good job on the sensor is what has probably contributed to this head gasket issue propping up.

I'll get that headgasket replaced sometime within the next 3 months but it means the project is on hold for now as I have to pay for it to be done.
 
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Just another Moderator
Joined 2003
Paid Member
This is my car (well at least the daily driver) I have another even older car which I need to get back to the restoration of (a 1965 Morris 1100).
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It's a 1995 Peugeot 306 S16 I've owned it since Oct 1996. About 260,000KM on the clock.

It's reasonably stock. Has a custom exhaust and and a quaif LSD. also hard poly suspension bushes, and vibratechnics upper and gearbox engine mounts.

I replaced the front speakers with some kicker's which aren't great but they fit the very shallow spot that was available. The old ones had foam surrounds that had completely rotted, and they distorted like mad.

I need to get a new compressor (for the aircond) as it finally has given up the ghost (system is still holding full pressure). So that's going to be a bit of an expense, but something I need to do with summer coming up!

Tony.
 
Daily driver BMW 118d.
2l diesel with 118hp stock (probably chip tuned by previous owner) and manual transmission.

Unlikely to be tuned.
Your Beemer has either the M47 or its successor N47 motor.
Used in a number of cars, not all BMWs, its output ranges from 114hp to 204hp in the 123d.

The M47 was a super reliable engine but the N47 had a propensity to throw timing chains essentially destroying the motor. I think the problem was eventually sorted during 2013 production.

My old Rover 75 estate has the M47 which started off with 116hp but its ECU died (the only fault in 6years) and it now has 136hp without an increase in fuel consumption.
A bit too late I found out that for £350 I could have got the ECU of a BMW 320d fitted giving 168hp.
Still quite happy given that the car cost me £1600 to buy because the s/h prices dropped by 50% after Rover ceased to exist.
 
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Unlikely to be tuned.
Your Beemer has either the M47 or its successor N47 motor.
Used in a number of cars, not all BMWs, its output ranges from 114hp to 204hp in the 123d.

The M47 was a super reliable engine but the N47 had a propensity to throw timing chains essentially destroying the motor. I think the problem was eventually sorted during 2013 production.

My old Rover 75 estate has the M47 which started off with 116hp but its ECU died (the only fault in 6years) and it now has 136hp without an increase in fuel consumption.
A bit too late I found out that for £350 I could have got the ECU of a BMW 320d fitted giving 168hp.
Still quite happy given that the car cost me £1600 to buy because the s/h prices dropped by 50% after Rover ceased to exist.
Why is this unlikely? It has the m47tu2d20 with common rail.
One of the previous owners have spent the money to upgrade the complete exhaust system, a strange thing to do if the engine is stock.
It feels much quicker then 122hp (i quoted the wrong stock power in my previous post), that's why I suspect that it's tuned.

Normal figures for a remap on this engine is 160hp/380nm
 
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I need to get a new compressor (for the aircond) as it finally has given up the ghost (system is still holding full pressure). So that's going to be a bit of an expense, but something I need to do with summer coming up!

Recharging the A/C is about the only satisfying work I have done on my Corvette. I just bought a whole bunch of those DIY recharge bottles from China, probably much more than necessary, in fear that I would wreck it, but it seems to have worked well. I got to full pressure without having to use the 2nd bottle of refrigerant. I think some countries' environmental regulations actually prevent them from sale.

I had an old lemon of a Honda Accord in which the compressor seized and burned through the belt. It was long ago in the days of individual belts, and I literally did nothing at all and still drove the car with a seized compressor for many thousands of kms after that.
 

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Just another Moderator
Joined 2003
Paid Member
I thought about pulling the compressor myself but wasn't sure on the (safe) discharging,. recharging, and the lubricant.

The original charge was R134A but it currently has Butane (which requires only 1/3 the pressure). New compressor is about $295 but new compressor plus labour is about $800!

I've removed it (but left pipes connected) when I took the sump off, it was a PITA job!! so I know why the labour charge is high :)

Tony.
 
AFAIK the lubricant is the hard part. I've read horror stories where someone burned through a rebuilt compressor in minutes because of misreading the oil in the system. When I did mine I used a couple of filter plugs to read oil per the instructions but I have no idea of how the results were to be interpreted. I added a can of dessicant and a can of lubricant to try and play it safe.
 
Disabled Account
Joined 2017
The aircon in my toyota camry vienta grande v6 is shot due to a leaky hose. I cannot find the hose online. But yeah I wouldn't recharge it myself I would leave it up to the experts. Just have to yet to get around to paying for it. Replacing the shock absorbers and springs would be the first on my list before I tackled the aircon.

It seems more likely that I will be keeping the vienta grande (flashy name of saying camry) and selling the ford because rust is digging into the ford quite a lot and because I like the interior and exterior on the camry.

If I were to bring the ford up to the same standards as the camry I would have to pay:
$500 for a towball kit
$500 for a new leather interior
$300-500 to repair external damage done to a side impact by a towball.
$500-1000 for a head gasket replacement
$300 for a new bonnet (rust has gotten into the bonnet to the point that it falls out in chunks)
$200 on a new drivers side airbag/horn doesn't work and it needs to be replaced as a set.
$0 on aircon as it already works.
$0 on struts and springs as they are in great shape

and then more money spent on the paint job (paint job is down to the paint coat, clear coat is gone on the roof) and repairing rust.

But if I spend on doing the camry up I get to keep the leather interior and:
$1000 for repairing/recharging the aircon
$1200 for replacing the struts/springs
$100 for a rear seatbelt replacement
$0 camry already has a towball and wiring completed

I think thats about it for the camry.

Hopefully you can understand my predicament here. On one hand I've got a nice camry with a good body and a bit of power and on the other I've got a monster falcon which has tons more power but is rusting away. Me and falcons go back a fair way and I've always had problems with rust with them but when it comes to camry's I've had little issues with rust, except for that one Celica that I had which rusted around the sunroof.
 
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