Monday, 28th of February, 2005
I've come to the conclusion the Lou Fusz Creve Ceour Subaru dealership has an unacceptable service center. Pretty much everything I've taken my Subaru in to be worked on there has ended up wrong. So we did a clutch replacement a while back - only a few days after a chirping surfaced somewhere in the engagement point. It didn't affect the operation of the clutch, but when the engine was removed last month we discovered a bearing was totally loose and just sitting in there. Then there was the timing belt service. They didn't properly torque the crankshaft pulley, so it came loose and ate away the the woodruff key and damaged the pulley. While the whole thing was apart, they didn't bother to change the front crank seal, which is a really cheap part, but hard to get to unless you're changing the timing belt. Well, no surprise when it starts leaking oil 20k miles later. I think I'm going to perform all service myself from this point forward.
Friday, 25th of February, 2005
There was an interesting high-speed car chase that followed a double homicide in the Ladue area this evening. It ended when the white Yukon XL Denali drove 120 mph east on I-64, went off the road at the Lindbergh interchange, and flew over Lindbergh Blvd. The driver was ejected when the SUV rolled over 4 times and died instantly.
I saw a performance of Ladue High School's musical this year - they did Grease. Very well done - the music was well arranged (had to be done mostly in-house). Acting was great as usual, though I suppose it's not too hard for high schoolers to act like high schoolers on stage.
Monday, 7th of February, 2005
A couple weeks ago I played two of Vivaldi's Four Seasons with the Washington University Chamber Orchestra. The recording is now out, and you can listen to a stream of it right here.
Once again, I get to experience how important and great it is to have decent tires on a vehicle. Before the new tires on the van, the steering wheel didn't point straight, there was heavy vibration under braking and in speeds excess 60 mph, and stopping distances were worse than a city bus. With new tires, the steering wheel now points straight, it's smooth under all circumstances, braking is back to car-like qualities, and there's actually some steering feedback in the steering wheel now too.
Tuesday, 2nd of February, 2005
So yesterday I drive out across Illinois to meet up with someone to pick up an engine from him. I agreed to drive 160 miles his direction and he drive 60 miles my direction. First of all, he has to rent a truck because his vehicle isn't large enough to carry the engine. So I set out there, and while I'm merrily trekking across Illinois the other person gets delayed - he had a birthday recently and his license is expired, so he can't rent a truck. Fortunately, renewing a license is not a big deal in Indiana so after a short delay things got rolling along. All the effort to get me the engine much appreciated, thanks Josh!
The second part of this saga is this morning, when I'm suppose to set out early from my house to deliver this engine to the shop that's working on my car's engine swap. He calls me this morning to tell me not to bring the engine, cause he's home sick for the day. Turns out to be a very good thing, because I walk out to my van and the rear passenger tire is completely flat. I knew I was getting to the end of the life of those tires but I didn't realize until I pulled it off that yesterday's drive had worn them down past the cord! No wonder it's not holding air. I inspected the spare, and you can see the cord on it too. Never mind, time to just buy a couple tires. It's a good thing the tire held together yesterday during my trek across Illinois or I might have had some problems since the spare is also bad.
So today Keith over at the Autotire in Ballwin hooked me up with a couple Uniroyal "Extra Load" "American Radial Silver Premium" tires for $58/each.