Locate an Auto Repair Shop in Sand Springs, Oklahoma

Sand Springs, OK Car Consumer Discussions

...I just reread the entire thread, and posted prematurely

by fiatlux1969 on Fri Nov 09 13:17:01 PST 2007

...and I don't believe the subject has been exhausted. I associate sixties sports cars with certain high points in my personal history, so I have a warm spot for Sunbeam Alpines and Datsun 2000s, as well as the FIATs that I so passionately defend. I don't think there are any cars of this genre that I don't like, although I realize there are qualitative differences among them. I was driving my first car, a '58 Ford Fairlane on 6th Avenue in Tacoma, which was THE cruising street at the time, but since it was only about 4:00 PM in the early spring time, cruising had not seriously begun. My left front wheel cover decided to abandon barge, and took off down the street before describing a half circle and crossing the two oncoming lanes, ending up in the lot of the Big 6 gas station, directly across the street from where I had stopped. While I was trying to figure out how to navigate over there to retrieve the part, a dark blue Sunbeam Alpine made an easy and fast u-turn and stopped next to the cover. The driver's door opened, and a lovely brunette reached out and picked it up. I finally was able to make my turn and pull up next to her. After pretending to take off with my wandering piece of Ford, she gave me her phone number and invited me to tap on her window that night. The next few months (until graduation) were an adolescent's fantasy made real. How could I not love all things Alpine, especially when equipped as that one was? A few years later, my then girlfriend (six-plus feet of hwp blondeness) and I were on our way to go skiing. She had a late-sixties Datsun 2000 (a surprisingly quick little car), which had two bald rear tires. After we made the turn onto the road that led, after five miles, to the ski area, we were forced to stop on an uphill surface that, if not ice, was at least polished snow. We became immobile, except for the spinning rear tires. Someone threw some sand in front of the tires and I started pushing. After the little car gained some momentum, rather than having her stop so I could get into the passenger seat, a maneuver that I believed would get us stuck again, I jumped up onto the trunk-lid mounted luggage rack, thinking that would help with traction, and rode the last four or so miles in that manner. Because I survived it, I viewed that as a great time. Those experiences led me half-way to the transition from big American iron to those funny little foreign things. I would be interested in knowing how others came by their particular enthusiasms, and, if urged, would be willing to divulge what pushed me the rest of the way and keeps me there still.

Tiny paint chips/writing on lug nuts/etc.

by ayalakay on Mon May 05 12:07:33 PDT 2008

Hi again everyone, some backgrond for the record... in Jan. I turned in my '05 EX 4WD and came home with an '08 VP 4WD. I still love this truck even though filling up really hurts these days. I now have about 2700 miles on it and still only getting 14-15 MPG. Mostly city driving... during spring break we took a 'road trip' (3 hrs round trip on the NJ Turnpike) which resulted in 18 mpg overall - yay! Anyway, perhaps the take-your-life-in-your-hands driving style around here is to blame for poor mileage. Tires holding steady at 34 psi. Now for the questions: 1. How important is the break in period to overall mileage, really? I must say I've never really been able to adhere to the "don't go over 50 for 300 miles" or whatever it is, simply because I probably would have been run off the road even on the way home from the dealer! Is it that critical? My mileage did improve in the '05 after probably 5,000 miles, so I am hoping for the same this time. 2. My dear daughter opened the passenger door into a metal signpost (a "No Parking 8-4" but it's OK, we were parking at 7!) and the door now has several miniscule chips all in a line, spanning about 4 inches - not a solid stripe (like keying). It's not glaringly noticeable but now I know it's there. The "Nimbus Gray" is all gone but I can't tell if it's down to the metal or not. Should I bother with touchup paint? Will I need to sand, compound, additional clear coat, etc. ? (the internet and its endless amounts of info can be quite overwhelming!) I know something like this will be covered under my lease terms, but it's bugging me. Second: Many of you will gasp at this but I finally washed my car (by hand, that is) 2 weekends ago (and of course it rained within 12 hours thereafter). But while washing I noticed that two of the lug nuts have what look like black permanent marker written on them. I highly doubt this occurred after I brought it home and feel like it must have been there pre-delivery. Of course I picked it up at night, and never imagined I'd need to study the lugs in addition to everything else. So - does anyone know of a solvent that can remove this without damaging the metal? Or, what do you think the odds are that my dealer will give me two new ones? OH and just a tip... for those of you with VP and the XM radio trial... search the web for XM $77 deal ... it really works - I now have it for the next year at a net cost of $5.34 per month!! Sweet! :shades: Thanks everyone - I enjoy this site immensely even though I don't post often. Cheers, Kay

gripes and improvements

by vanner on Thu Apr 10 09:10:17 PDT 2008

If I had that big a list of complaints. I'd have bought something else or would soon. Headrests should be clear now - they adjust. Well. No one in our family and none of the handful of adults or big kids who have been in our '07 LX have found them to be a problem. Read the manual. Seats are as comfortable as nearly any car I've sat in. I was in it more-or-less for 10 hours each way on a recent trip and can't fault the shape, adjustment, or cloth material on ours. One small cola spill cleaned up while still beaded on a seat surface, so I'm pleased and our son survived. Kids claim great comfort "back there" in the second row, and they rode as long as we did. My wife drives "straight up" and close. I drive laid-back and straight-armed. We both find the seats just fine. (A note here: with airbags, you really, REALLY want the bag to fully inflate before you make contact on your way forward. Farther back is safer. Telescopic columns are going the way of bag cell phones for that reason.) Can't find a position where I can't see the gauges. Orange color is great for me because it causes less eye-strain for me at night. Blues and greens irritate heck out of my eyes. I turn the lights to about 1/2 at night and enjoy it. Steering wheel diameter? I just measured our old Aerostar and our aging Tracker and they're within fractions. Rim thickness? Perfect for us. The old Sedona had WAY too thick a rim and it was slippery. This one has good grip. I really don't see the front-end adjustment issue as being much unless you wreck one or hit one of our spring potholes, hard. I still insist there is some "adjustment" for minor changes, and bet they're banking on parts replacement for big changes. You're going to see a lot more of this from most manufacturers because it is economical to build. If you look, you're going to find this in every brand soon or now. Collision shops straighten horrendous front-end bends and twists every day, and they come out fine. Hunter makes some great equipment these days! We have no pull at all under any conditions, but I can see where a run of cars may have come off with the wrong front end for the engine size. It could be possible to mount the V-6 in the I-4 subframe I guess, it could happen during a run changeover, and it might change the ride-height and thus the geometry of the front suspension - maybe even the caster angle. Small changes in caster angle make BIG changes in handling! Any manufacturer has made some run errors in assembly. I've done a heck of a lot of high-volume assembly engineering, and it happens not matter how you guard against it. Might pay to compare part numbers of what you have versus what it should be. I think the struts are different parts with different spring rates, and I'd bet that subframe is, too. ESC has an "off" position on the switch. If you don't trust it, turn it off. I think there is a combination of controls here involving brakes and engine power. I drove a friend's high-end Corvette "family car" a while back, and it would be otherwise uncontrollable without ESC. He uses it religiously, and he has raced for many more years and miles than I have. I lived in the Western New York snow belt for 36 years, and I would have loved it if I had it. It only comes on when the car might do something that would cause it to skid or roll, and it's quicker and better than I am. I'm still better than most. Lights are superb. They just aren't "blue" if that means much to anyone, and they apparently don't irritate other drivers. I find them refreshingly like expensive accessory lights I used to put on my "performance" cars years ago. Yes, they have a sharp cut-off. You'll like that in rain, mist, fog, and snow. Less back-glare. I just drove about 400 miles in heavy rain at night and I never really desired any more or different lighting. It was very nice. I also like the side-lighting on high beam, for how seldom I end up using the highs. Roof height, vehicle height, seat height are all reasons I chose this Rondo over many sedans and five-doors I could have picked. I want a high, roomy vehicle, with great visibility, otherwise I'd have bought a sedan. I just traveled through some of the wickedest weather and strongest wind gusts I've driven through in years and only parked off a ramp for a few minutes because of zero visibilty. (Most areas along this route got over 8" of rain in one overnight storm system. It can be hard to drive through that sort of downpour at night!) The Rondo was rock-solid and never once did I feel fear from cross-wind or semi draft. I even remarked many times that it is one of the most stable and secure-feeling passenger cars I've ever driven. I don't know what in heck someone has found smeared on the inside of any windscreen, but there's nothing but glass on ours. I have no idea what any car manufacturer would put there, since NHTSA highway safety regulations pretty well spec what can or can't be there. I had to take a razor blade and some strong window cleaner to clean off the glue from the lot sticker that the detail crew missed. I would have found any slushy stuff or any stick-on layer there I'd think. There is the usual "scum" from the ABS plastic elastomers that "evaporate" and leach out in the heat and sun that invades every car every day. It's the smoky haze you find on every window, even if you don't smoke. We don't, we get the haze. Windex seems to work fine. (The windshield always gets more because of the surface area of the dash under it. It's there in any modern car.) Is there some form of applique for a wndshield de-icer or wiper de-icer on some model packages? My only minor gripe to date is the lack of front overhead or courtesy foot-well lights upon opening the front doors. I susect some "package" on the EX has this? Also, in the cargo area, unless I'm too dumb to find the right setting, the overhead light only comes on if there's a door open - it's not connected to the hatch lid. There is one tiny courtesy light back there and it doesn't light much. We like the washable surfaces but we have pets and kids. We also play hard. We got a lot of beach sand and salt-water residue inside this last rip. Cleans easily. We don't like leather for any price, and attempts to even "write it off" the price tag won't sway us. Again, lots of cars, vans, mini vans and SUVs have all the answers to the complaints. Sometimes even in one vehicle. The price will be much higher. If I had this much I didn't like, I'd avoid the Rondo if you don't have one yet, or bail out while they're still scarce and desireable and buy something I liked better. We're prejudiced. We love this car!

Re: 66' Corvette & 71 Mustang Mach 1 [jspagna1]

by explorerx4 on Wed Mar 26 17:46:16 PDT 2008

also in ct, thanks for the links to the pictures. over the weekend i saw a similar style mustang headed east on I-84. dark green and not a mach 1. it was warm enough today that i decided to start up my '91 mustang. i wait until the sand is picked up to start driving it. the landscapers are out working on the lawns, so spring must be on the way!

audi air spring repair fix found bad seal

by jchew on Tue Feb 26 10:43:46 PST 2008

Well I broke down and ordered a front air spring cost $620 with install kit. I received it and found that there is no release valve at the top like I was told. After careful study of how this air spring works, I have come to the conclusion that my intermittent air leak is coming from a $2 seal at the top of this shock and not a valve problem since there is no valve on the shock. It makes sense now that I can see how the seal relates to the shock. It would leak more often when it was cold because the seal would shrink. What really bothers me is that no one has figured this out by now there must be thousands of these failures over the last 7 years and yet when I goggled the problem I found no mention of replacing the $2 seal before replacing a $600 air spring. So to everyone with a simular problem try the seal first before you spend $600 plus labor per corner. Also I would recommend raising the car to highest level once a month and spraying water to clean out any sand or dirt from around the base of the air spring. It seems if sand or grit gets between the rubber and the steal shaft it will wear a hole into the air bags. I think the life expectance of the air shock is around 10 years if kept clean in this manner but the seal will fail around 5-6years first. :D

More Denali on Beach Questions

by vabasgetr on Sun Feb 17 11:57:07 PST 2008

I see a couple of posts from last spring and summer about taking an AWD Denali on the beach from ajv00303 and cranvill. I was happy to see that the Denali handled the soft sand OK. Did either of you have to climb dunes to get to the beach? I will be taking our truck to Nag's Head NC this summer. One of the places I would like to fish requires crossing over the sand dunes. I sometimes feel that the AWD/Stabilitrak combination could give me some unexpected results when presented with situations other than slippery/snowy pavement.