Ness' Outpost

The Vibe came due for another oil change this week. I was out early to do the job armed with the right tools this time.

Luckily I had an extra crush ring on hand since the old one didn’t come off with the drain plug from the oil pan. It just stuck seized to the opening – or so I thought. When I went to put the plug back in after draining it was gone and had fallen into the oil pan with all the used oil. I put a new one on and fished out the old one when the used oil was poured into the jug for recycling.

There seem to be a lot of searches for oil change photos so I took a few locating the parts.
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We headed north to a resort in Horseshoe Valley this past weekend with Kevin and Heather to check out the colours of the fall season. It was a nice little weekend away.

There are tonnes of activities to do up there but we ended up doing some mountain biking at Hardwood hills and a few hikes on trails found in the local area on the Ontario Trails Council website.

We did a nice easy walk through Copeland Forest which was a bit later into the day after mountain biking. Since it is wild turkey season we made sure to be out of there before dusk. The next day after checking out of the resort we got lost trying to find the trailhead for the Barrie section of the Ganaraska Trail. We eventually found it thanks to Kevin’s blackberry and a helpful dog walker who pointed us up the road a bit more.

The treetop course was all booked up for the weekend. Next time we’ll have to call ahead a few more days in advance to book a spot.

I’m glad I put the mud guards on my Outlander. We took some awesome gravel back roads along some country lines and the hills out there are pretty challenging for any vehicle loaded down with 4 adults and all their stuff. The guards really helped keep the gravel from messing up the paint along the side of the vehicle.

Real maple syrup from Sugar Sweet Farms which is run by Brian Lempriere made it all worth while getting lost and having a fun drive in squares.

Photos of the weekend.

I stopped by Dixie Mitsubishi to see the parts department. Picked up a oil filter (MZ690072) and engine air filter (1500A023 – aka Element Air Cleaner) for my 24,000km service. I also bought a set of mud guards (MZ380525EX) for the coming winter that I’ll have to install in the fall once I can find some primer/adhesion promoter. The parts department also had a rubber WeatherTech trunk liner on the shelf – which I have been eyeing forever — with a slight discount since it was out of the box. These liners/mats never go on sale so I scooped it up.

I thought the oil filter looked really similar to the Pontiac Vibe’s shape and size. So I grabbed the oil wrench and sure enough it fit nicely on the end of the Mitsu oil filter. That’s awesome, one less tool to buy now.

Turned out to be a rather expensive visit. ;)

The owners manual talks a bit about the AWC of the second generation Mitsubishi Outlander. While the owners manual is good for the average user to choose a mode it doesn’t help you fill in the data of what the car is actually doing in those modes. This wikipedia post talks about about how the car achieves the different goals of the driving modes.
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I found out that my Motomaster 5-Gallon Twin-stack Air Compressor (#58-7949-6) compressor is too small to run the Mastercraft ½” impact wrench (#58-8413) that comes in the Mastercraft 100-Piece Air Tool Kit (#58-7872-0).

After lugging the beast of a compressor out of the basement plugging it in and hooking up the 50′ 3/8″ hose with 1/4″ quick connects all I could get out of the tool was a steady hiss of air – no impacting as expected on the lugs of the Vibe. I was able to get one nut off after fiddling around with the compressor regulator and cranking up the PSI to the max but the tool specifications say the max is only 90 PSI not the 120 PSI I was trying to feed it to get off the lugs.

Lugs were put on by a tire shop so they were probably at 90 ft/lbs. I torque the lugs to 80 ft/lbs when I change the tires myself on the steelies unless the vehicle says more or less.

Returning to the specs again the air compressor delivers 4.1 scfm @ 90 PSI while the impact wrench requires somewhere around 5.0 scfm according to the tool manual – not the Canadian Tire website.

Dang. I guess I’ll need a garage with a bigger air compressor some day or a better air wrench. ;)
For now the electric impact gun is a lot lighter and easier to use in the driveway.

Never use a gun to torque on your lugs – do it by hand with a proper torque wrench.

I got out the tools to do an oil change on the Vibe tonight before it rains. 14mm box wrench, oil filter and filter wrench, 3/8″ ratchet and extension. The brand spanking new rino ramps were cut free from their packaging and I was all set to go.

The Vibe is a standard and I drive an automatic every day. I can drive standard — it just isn’t pretty. The rino ramps aren’t that high, only about 8 inches or so but became obstacle number one. I couldn’t get the vehicle up on them since our driveway is sloped too that extra slope made it really hard to get her up on the ramps. Lauren put the car up on them no problem for me.
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Today I tried to re-configure our Logitech Harmony 880 remote. I hooked the Wii into the sound system and changed the input channel too. Changes needed to be made on the remote.

But I forgot how to do it so I’m documenting how to set it up again for next time.
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Felt an earthquake today. The last time there was a tremor in Ontario — which was a long time ago so don’t ask me when — I was in a car and didn’t feel anything due to a fantastic Toyota suspension.

It felt like a really big guy was walking across the roof of our building in Oakville pulling a HVAC system or something.

Technical details of the event are here. USGS is calling it a 5.5 magnitude:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2010xwa7.php

Working from home today as the roofers are working away stripping the old two layers off, hammering down the decking and reconfiguring our vents.

So far so good — no headache yet. We’ll see when they start laying shingles. I may have to disappear for a while.

I took a few days of extra vacation around the May 24 long weekend to work on our master bedroom.

It seemed to have almost the original paint and definitely had the original trim work. We had picked a colour, I had all the tools. The only thing standing in our way was a wedding on Saturday and lots of furniture that needed to be moved around. Also the fact we’d have to spend our nights in the guest room – but that wasn’t so bad.
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