Syonyk

I suspect a good number of people here have been in the "Well, I'm not doing anything, I'd like to work on my car, but I'm broke" state. What are some things that one can do for free or nearly free?

A few things I've done or am planning to do (stupid rain):

Wheel bearing inspection (tighten the front wheel bearings)
http://www.fc3s.org/how_tos/maintena...nspection.html

While you're in there, may as well repack the bearings with new grease.


Adjust the brake booster pushrod for better pedal feel - procedure is in the FSM, but you remove the master cylinder, adjust the little pushrod end, and then make sure the brakes aren't dragging.

Clean the in-tank fuel filter (or at least inspect it).

Resolder the (warning light cluster/logicon/ECU/CPU/cruise control/whatever else needs work).

Install a (fuel cutoff switch/tail light cutoff switch/brake light check switch).

Rotate your tires.


What else? It just needs to be cheap.

-=Russ=-

hondahater

iTrader: (2)

lol, I've always gone with the saying if it aint broke don't fix it, but if you are itching to work on your car go for it, sounds like you have a pretty good list there. I've always wondered how hard it would be to do that adjusting the brake boster pushrod thing but thought it would be pretty damn hard however that doesn't seem hard at all.

beefhole

iTrader: (29)

Check hoses and pull codes.

RRTEC

iTrader: (13)

Scratch a body pannel with your keys and then see if you can "buff it out"......

Syonyk

Or scratch a body panel with the handle to your jack...

Regarding the brake pushrod adjustment, http://www.zilvia.net/faqs/archive/brakebooster.asp

It's not for a '7 specifically, but the procedure is the same (look in the FSM for specifics). The key point is that you have to test the brakes with the engine running - if they're dragging, that's no good. You might have to play with it a bit to get everything perfect.

-=Russ=-

Syonyk

You must not be an engineer... "If it ain't broke, fix it till it is."

A lot of these are just generally good ideas though. My front wheel bearings were really loose, and it took me half an hour to adjust both of them. Handles noticeably better now (tracking is like it's on rails now - it was good before, but... wow). Not bad for half an hour and a $5 tub of wheel bearing grease.

And, regarding resoldering: Even if things seem to be working, they can probably use resoldering. I've resoldered a few idiot light/clock clusters, and even if they work, they work a lot better afterwards (brighter clock, clock doesn't randomly reset or go dim). Some (a lot?) of the solder joints are just plain crappy. Cold & empty - I reheat them and add solder to most of them.

-=Russ=-

scheistermeister

S4 specific stuff ive done when ive been bored and broke
you can make clear lenses, paint tails same color as body

clean it

not as cheap, but you can paint the interior plastic panels black for about $10

oakback

I tried cleaning some of my engine bay, removed any brackets that were no longer needed, and made sure the grounds were good (remove ground, sand contact surfaces, reattach).

And thanks for the info on the brake booster, I've never even heard of this until recently, and I think it may be a problem I have.

88IntegraLS

Port the intake manifold! Best bang for buck mod there is. But it's time consuming.

Aesop Rock

Weight Reduction

josh_allman

part the heads how do you do that and how long would it take cus it sounds like a good idea.

when im broke every second week i work on the interia. like rite now cus iv got a convertable there is an ugly stupid box im building a new one and then in going to recover it in a nice new silver shagpile carpet like the rest of the car or you could just chean it so take you mates out crusing (its big in oz)

ajsuper7

i got so bored one time i took apart my glovebox door b/c i wanted to know why in the hell it was so heavy. well upon inspection i found a whole lot of steel reinforcement prolly there to make sure its a solid surface for cups. anyways i had to use a drill but i got alot of the useless metal in there out and saved a few lbs. keep in mind this was just to take up some time and set me back about 2 hours. but hey my glovebox door is lighter than anyone elses

IaMtHeRuThLeSs1

you could always do the "sleepy eye" conversion...or you could do my better version...Just pull the retractor fuse, and turn on the lights and it'll show threw the clear plastic, looks pretty bad ***, and looks a hellova lot better than the sleepy eyes, although it wont be nearly as bright as before :-( oh well.

Jager

iTrader: (10)

Take out AC and PS.

87RX7TII

bump

jon88se

Fix broken stuff, you know you've got some

josh_allman

bump wat is with that iv seen it on a few forms befor but does it mean anything or is it just there to anoy ppl

oakback

it moves, or "bumps" the topic to the top of the forum.

Forcus

I wouldn't call these free, necessarily but they are cheap and can help.

-Engine Wiring Harness Re-wrap. I did mine for about $20. Basically pulled my engine wiring harness out, mapped all the connections and checked for continuity, then one branch at a time attempted to rewrap it as factory. It worked pretty well. I used non adhesive high temp tape from Home Depot, about $10 per roll (used 1.5 rolls). I took out all of the emissions and not-needed (rats nest) wiring. Made the bundle alot smaller and simpler. Also took away possible shorts in the wiring that could develop.

-Battery Relocation. Haven't done this yet but is relatively cheap to run welding wire to the rear and install a nice battery box. Obviously vent fumes if you are using a regular battery (I have an Optima). This should cost under $100.

-New Ground/Clean Old Ones. This is free to $50. Depends on how far you want to go. I haven't yet but plan on cleaning all ground present and then running new ones to critical locations.

-PS / AC / Emissions Removal. The PS is one huge mother. Not all that heavy but severely limits access. Give it the heave and loop your PS lines. I'm keeping my A/C but you can remove that if you don't care for it. Got rid of alot of complicated stuff with my emissions removal. And better access.

-Gutting Cats. Cheap/Free. Just make sure that you weren't already running kind of lean and this pushes your car over the edge..

-E-fan. Not cheap cheap but not too expensive. I'd recommend it for space considerations.

-Suspension repaint/bushings. Not cheap cheap but a good mod. Remove suspension, have it media blasted, remove all rust and either paint or powdercoat it. Obviously powdercoating will be more. New bushings, rubber or poly, your choice.

-Brake Redo. Provided your calipers and MC are working fine, upgrade with new pads and braided stainless lines. Rotors if you need them.

Parastie

Becareful when messing with the master brack cylinder. In case you guys didn't know, break fluid eats paint! I discovered this the hard way....

Digi7ech

iTrader: (1)

Hmm You could paint your brake calipers.

Kai

Take it apart and put it back together. You'll learn how the car works in notime.

If it doesn't work when you put it back together, you have more learning to do.

I used to pass time trying to figure out different systems of the car. Look at them, then look at the FSM, then look at the parts again, things will click. It will help you in the future when things actually do brake or need adjustment.

casio

something i dont see myself doing, but may help. volt-test your sensors. if you wanna be hardcore, test them at the sensor and at the ecu and see if your voltage load is stable. never know, you may find a sensor out of wack or one with a 'bad spot.'

also, clutch and brake fluid if you have a friend. my clutch fluid was recently replaced (during engine build), but i have the same spongy brakes. its going to be weird driving with brakes that actually apply force. when i replace the fluid of course.

to the guy about the glove box, i know what you mean. i had my entire glovebox out of the car for awhile. that little door is heavy. i started to take something off of it, then realised that i would be completely taking it apart. guess i should have to seen the inside.

of course dealing with any codes. my car isn't running completely great and i believe it has to do with a couple of codes. my car throws 9 and 13; thermosensor and pressure sensor. the pressure sensor was tested a couple of years ago and was in spec. i'm not sure why its throwing that code. i don't know anything about the thermosensor. uhg, i dont feel like testing it or even trying to get to it. =(

ddub

TB mod, port TB, port intake manifolds, weight reduction, remove unneeded things, bla bla bla there's tons of things you can do for free/cheap, but eventually you run out like me

WAYNE88N/A

Casio- read the thermosensor out from the ECU- when that little sucker's bad it WILL affect your performance. Should read about .5v at 1/4 temp scale, about 1.1v on a "warm" start, and about 1.85v cold...If that looks good, check your boost sensor, but I get 10 to 20 boost sensor codes a day, and it never affects performance