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Racing at Road Atlanta

2016 ChumpCar race at Road Atlanta

We ran our 1986 Porsche 944 at Road Atlanta.

The car ran flawlessly all day. We got a couple of new battle scars but still drove it on the trailer after the checker flag.

Our pits stops went well and even though our laps times were not as fast as we would have liked, we finished 32nd out of 110 cars. We found that there car can go over three hours on fuel so we skipped fuel on two of our driver swap pit stops. That gained us a lap or two. We completed 338 laps this year in the 14 hour race.

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How to get radio out of Safe Mode in 2000 VW Passat

Do you have a radio like this in your VW passat? 000_0083

 

 

Is it in “Safe” mode after the battery has been disconnected?

If you don’t have the owner’s manual (like me), you should be able to find the code in your wheel well located in the trunk under the mat. It should look like this:

000_0084

 

 

See in the picture where the 4 numbers are circled?  This is my code

Locate your code which should be on a sticker like this one in the wheel well. Turn your radio on which will say Safe for a short time and then say 1000.  Since my code is 0700  I pressed the  1 button twice to make it change to   0.

Then I go to the next number, then push it until it says 7.

When I finished I pressed the FF button (held it down) and voila! My radio was back on.

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Replacing the ABS module on a 2000 Passat

When she bought it, Jennifer’s Passat had a scary warning on the dash says “STOP brake.”

Since the brakes stopped the car fine she bought it hoping the fix would be simple. It turns out it was.

The folks at Cheap ABS.com were a big help. We followed their helpful instructions at http://cheap-abs.com/removal.html and easily removed the unit.

We found her car had a mix of T25 and T20 fasteners holding the inner fender in place. It also took a few seconds of study to see how to pull it out of the various things it slides behind after the fasteners were out. With the inner fender out of the way, the washer bottle was visible. However, even with all three screws out, the bottle would not move out of the way enough to get to the ABS unit comfortably. I had to unplug the wiring harness and remove the pump from the bottle, to get it out of the way. These just pull right off but are behind the bottle so it was hard to do the first time.

With the bottle out of the way. I set at disconnecting the two wiring harnesses. The disconnect tab was really hard to pull forward and I had to use a screwdriver to get a bit of leverage to start it moving. I was very careful not to break any of the small plastic mounting tabs. With the wire loose, we then removed the six torx screws holding the module to the pump body.

Jennifer then packed it carefully and shipped it off to Virginia. She was able to drive the car with the box gone just as she had been driving it with the defective module.

One week alter the repaired module returned and we again pulled the fender liner and washer bottle out. The repaired module slipped right in and the wires were easy to connect after I aligned the tabs correctly. It was much easier to manipulate the washer bottle and fender liner into place after having done it once already.

When starting the car, she was greeted by a friendly reminder to top up the washer fluid instead of the STOP message that had been tieing up the display for the last few months. The anti lock brakes work as expected and so does the traction control. Thanks to the folks ta Cheap ABS!

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Daily Driving XJ vs Talon

Driving a sports car again.

For the last six or seven years my daily driver has been a Jeep Cherokee. Now that I have started driving my Eagle Talon again I have noticed several differences.

First, I had no idea how rough the roads had gotten. In the Jeep I just drive over the sped bumps, manhole covered, pavement transitions and others inconsistencies. In the Talon, I have to be ever watchful for these places or I get a resounding jolt as the suspension bottoms and jars my teeth. While the ride in the Talon is firm, its biggest problem dealing with the every day road conditions is lack of travel.

Another issue is parking. Compared to the Jeep, the door son the Talon are really long. And due to the lower seat height, they are more difficult to get in and out of. I have to park where I have plenty of room to open the door and get out.

Also due to the long nose and low clearance, I have to be ever watchful for tall parking bumpers. I have already scraped the bumper cover a couple of times. I can’t just roll up until I feel it stop like in the Jeep. Also, in the Jeep I could just drive over it if I felt the need. Not so in the Talon.

The power and handling of the Talon make driving in traffic much more interesting. In the Jeep I am usually content just to pick a lane and patiently go with the flow. However, In the Talon, I know a simple blip of the throttle with get me to the other lane and quickly past the car in front of me. I am much less patient in traffic. Also there is something about being pushed back in to the seat as the turbo boost builds that is addicting.