Coming Soon!: Digital Camcorder for Autox Footage

I will be getting a camcorder to record all of my runs for this upcoming season. The footage will be in car only because I'm too chicken to put a camcorder on the side of my car to be held only by suction cups.

Anyway, I did some quick research and found an article in PC World about when the best sales are for cameras and camcorders. The prices tend to drop at around late January through February and also on President's day.

Edge Racing's End of the Year Sale

I decided to check out what's going on at EdgeRacing.com and found out that they have another sale "End of the Year Low Price Extravaganza" sale. The prices are actually pretty good. Back in August, the Falken Azenis Rt615's were $110 per tire and now they're $103.

The wheels that were $89 back in August are now $79. Unfortunately, I still don't have the money to get these. But I figured that I should record this so that I'm prepared to buy it for next year.

I'll just have to wait until next year to get these. I figured that I should keep track of this so that I don't forget that I could save about 68 dollars on a full set of wheels and tires. So no National's for awhile... But it's okay, this upcoming season will be good practice. I still have a lot to learn anyway. =)

Sidewall Flex Problem

I tried increasing the pressure in the front to stiffen the tire, but it didn't do much to prevent the sidewall flex; I ended up sacrificing grip to reduce the flex. So I put the the pressures back down to where it was before. Since there's nothing I can really do about the weak sidewall problem (other than get better tires), the only other way I can go faster is to learn the limits of the tire's sidewall so that I know how fast I can go before it starts to bend. In other words-- practice, practice, practice!!!

First Drive on the Stiffer Front Sway Bar

I was surprised with how much my handling improved! I can now drive at the same speeds that would typically send me sliding into understeer. I also noticed that the rear end felt like it wanted to break loose because of the increased front-end grip. The steering was also more responsive and there was also less body roll.

But despite of all of the improvements, a weakness in my suspension became more obvious. The tires. With the stiffer front sway bar, it increased the tire lateral load distribution and caused my sidewall to flex more and quicker when driven at the limit. But hopefully, with the right tire pressure, I might be able to fix this.

Day 2: Front Sway Bar Install *COMPLETED*

Today was dedicated to finding a replacement for the missing washer on the end link that Energysuspensionparts.com FORGOT to put in. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be to find a washer. I first tried Home Depot, then Lowe's, then Advance Auto Parts, and then I had Advance Auto Parts check all of the nearby Advance Auto Parts stores in the city and none of them had the washer in stock! Luckily, one of the employees at Advance Auto spoke up while I was leaving and pointed me in the right direction: A very very small hardware store called White Swan Hardware, which surprisingly had the washer I needed. The only difference was that the washer didn't have the same cup shape as the other washers in the end link, but the hole and the width were identical, so it was good enough...

Here are some pictures of what a stock sway bar, end link, and bushings look like after 42,000 miles:

Day 1: Front Sway Bar Install

Overall, I was satisfied with today because I got a lot done even though there were some problems. The OEM sway bar end links were still difficult to work with because of the rust, but after attaching a wrench to the ratchet for extra leverage, it came off with some muscle. To hold the hex washer at the top of the end link (above picture), I used vice grips again. This time, I didn't worry about breaking it because I had replacement end links. With some muscle, the bolt of the end links came loose. The brackets were also a little tight, but they also came apart fairly easy. It took me about 1.5 hours to disassemble the OEM sway bar.

The installation of the Progress Sway Bar was difficult and time consuming because of a serious error in the installation instructions from The Progress Group, Inc.. In the instructions, it said to install the end links with the car up in the air. The first set of end links were easy to put together...

But the second set was impossible to install even with the end links so loose that they were at the brink of falling apart. The bolt just wouldn't fit through the hole no matter how hard I wiggled the bar...

I spent hours upon hours trying to force the end links in place until my arms had no more strength in them. Frustrated, I thought to myself, "maybe the sway bar is too long." Afterwards, I had insight and figured out why I couldn't get both of the end links on. With the car in the air, the suspension cups, causing the holes for the end links to merge closer together and give the illusion that the sway bar is too long.

I decided to ditch the installation instructions and do the install with the use of my brain. I dropped the car on the ground and like magic, the end links slid right in perfectly with no need to wiggle it in! But when I thought the worst was over, I realized that I was missing a washer when I noticed that the nut I was tightening was carving a hole into the bushing!

I figured that I probably lost the washer, so I looked around the garage and in my house for several hours. I eventually gave up the search and decided to wait until tomorrow to worry about it. But while I was laying in bed looking through pictures on my phone, I saw this:

Yup. So it turns out that I didn't lose the washer. It actually wasn't there to begin with. So I spent three hours looking for something that I didn't even lose in the first place. Grrr!

Maintenance: Alignment

When Firestone said that my tires needed to be replaced because of bad alignment, I had no choice but to have my alignment done or else I would have to spend another $500 on new tires. I had two choices to choose from; I could either get a one time alignment done for $69.99 or I could spend $149.99 which comes with a lifetime warranty for as long as I own my car. Since I'm planning on keeping my car forever, I went with the lifetime warranty package. Since I let them work on my car after the inspection, I was refunded my $20 back through a discount. So I only ended up paying $138.26. Not bad!

I was glad that I spent the money on the alignment when I read the alignment specifications printout. In the service manual, it says that the front toe should be somewhere between 0.00 to 0.20 degrees. Well, it turned out that my right wheel was -0.28 degrees!

I tried to get a good clear shot of the spec printout. Instead, I took pictures of segments of the document and photoshopped them together to look sort of like one document. Haha... Just click on it to view it larger.

Maintenance: Wheel Bearing & Hub

This morning, I brought my car in to Bloomington Dodge to have my wheel bearing and hub replaced. It turned out that the squeak noise that I heard from the front right wheel wasn't my breaks. The noise was actually coming from a loose wheel bearing and a bad hub. It cost me $353.20 to have it replaced. I was sorta pissed because I had no choice but to replace it or else I would be driving one day and see my wheel rolling past me. But I guess it's normal for something to fail considering that I have had my car for over two years now. With the new wheel bearing and hub on, it made a noticeable difference in the ride quality of my car. The ride is a lot smoother and feels like there is less friction at the wheels. Hopefully, I will get better fuel economy from this to help me save money!

Delivered: Front Energy Suspension Bushings/ End Links

Because the stock end links were too hard to take off, I ordered OEM size end links (red) and 27mm bushings (black) just in case I damage the stock end links when I try to do the sway bar installation again. The Energy Suspension end links and bushings are made of Hyper-Flex Polyurethane, which is supposed to be much stiffer than OEM, resist deterioration from road salt, oil and other contaminants. It is also supposed to be resistant from permanent compression and have double the life span compared to the OEM material. Sounds great from what they advertised, but I will have to see just how well it performs when I put it on!

A Good Deal From Dodge?!?! Crazy!

When Firestone told me that it costs $400.25 parts and labor for the wheel bearing, I thought that was the best price I could get it at. But just to give it a try, I called Dodge and got a quote from them. Surprisingly, they said that they could do it for $280.00! I never thought that I would say this, but Dodge actually gave me a good deal for once!