Cars, hurricanes, insurance, and replacements.

[wfooshee]

So in December I had Progressive out to look at my two cars, both damaged by Hurricane Michael. The Miata was "safely" ensconced in the garage, and I took the Aurora to my office where I rode out the storm. The garage door blew out, and the garage ceiling fell in, so the Miata, which I thought was protected, got pretty beat up. The Aurora was outdoors, parked with the passenger side facing the storm, and took several pieces of airborne debris, creating a number of pretty big dents, although no glass was broken, and the car was still driveable.

The Aurora was giving me fits, so I was really hoping to be able to just unload it with that claim. It was losing coolant and the A/C compressor had gone out a couple of months before the storm. The paint was crap when I bought it, but the interior was perfect, and everything worked! It was quick, comfortable, stereo was great, and except for occasionally not working, it was reliable. **cough** **cough** OK, it only stranded me once. And I carry water because I keep having to top off the coolant. And it's no longer air-conditioned. And it needs tires. But aside from that, it's GREAT!!!

The Miata was a recent acquisition, having gotten it in July. I had my son's Miata back in 2004 when he was deployed, and I've wanted one ever since the little bastard took his back. They're not powerful, they're not all that smooth in ride, and for a heavy old guy they're a bit of work to get in and out of, but I LOVE IT!!! Nothing else handles like a Miata, and nothing else shifts like one. You decide you want the top down, you unlatch it while you're sitting at the light and throw it back. You can pull it up from the driver's seat, too. Down is about three seconds, up is about six. Add a couple of seconds for the windows, because top-down-windows-up is GHEY!!!

So Progressive gave me just under 3000 for the Aurora, which was quite generous, I thought. Between you and me and the fencepost, it was more than I paid for it three years ago. Significantly more. They gave me almost 8K for the Miata, which again, was more than I paid for it. It was almost not a total; had it not been for some stitching coming lose in the top and a bent rib, I would have gotten 2 new body panels and a full paint job. The top, though, put it over the top, so to speak, in settlement value. They can't go to eBay or Moss Miata for parts, they have to use Mazda prices, and the frame of the top would be about $3500!!

I don't have any post-Michael pics of the Aurora, here's how I found the Miata (re-runs of some pics from my Hurricane Michael thread):

How I found it...

What it looked like after extraction:

What it looks like after a good bath:

Not what you expect when you hear "totaled," is it?

So both cars come out a total loss, and when I ask about buy-back, they offer the Miata for less than 2K. Well, there's nothing wrong with it! It has a couple of small dents and a lot of scuffs and scratches, the top leaks and one bar of the frame is slightly bent. Mechanically, it's the same car, which I can't even begin to approach on the market for that number, so I bought it back. Yeah, that puts a Rebuilt title on it, but who cares. I've never sold a car in my life, I run them until they die.

So I still have my Miata, and not quite 8K in cash. And I do need a bigger car.

Spent a few weeks shopping around, then one day came across something at what seemed an astonishing, to-good-to-be-true price. Well, it WAS too good to be true, but the issues can be dealt with. So in what may turn out to be the stupidest, or the most brilliant car purchase I've ever made, I got a 2003 Mercedes-Benz S55 AMG. The 5.5-liter supercharged V8. For $5K. The car has 152,000 miles, which for a 2003 is less than 10K a year.

The car has issues, most of which I knew going in. The previous owner... well, no other way to say it other than: he ghettoed the wheels! The car came with 18x8.5 fronts, and 18x9.5 rears, with appropriate rubber. The car as it sits has 20s on it, and they are at least 2 inches wider than stock. Furthermore, the guy put tires on it that are the original width, so the sidewalls are splayed out as the tire sits on the rim. The bead is at least an inch outside the edge of the tread surface! The result is that the tires rub the body work. ON THE SIDEWALLS!!! Well, I've got almost 3K more of insurance money, so I can go wheel and tire shopping. I've already found and have on hand a set of genuine AMG wheels the right size. They're not from an S55 but from another model, and from an earlier year, but they will fit correctly and perfectly. Thing is, I can't get the existing wheels off. They have a weird locking lug, not factory, and there's no key tool with the car. I was able to get two of them off with the trick of hammering a socket on to them, but the other two won't budge, and they've rounded the shoulders as the socket slipped on them. The perfect socket now, just under 19mm, would be 23/32-inch, but I don't think anyone makes one of those.

I'm going to have to take it to a tire shop with the tools to yank those out, and I hate taking stuff to a shop! Anyway, next step is tire shopping.

Another issue, well aware of at purchase, is even though the car has a clean Carfax, good maintenance (even saw that the valve cover gaskets have been replaced in the last couple of years,) it has obviously been bumped pretty good at the nose. Driver's side headlight assembly is new, and the paint is flaking off the bumper. There's damage behind the bumper at the driver's side, and the motor for the headlamp washer is smashed, meaning the car won't hold washer fluid. That last part I learned when I added a quart or so of fluid and saw it run down onto the pavement...

The passenger side headlight was badly glazed but I have one of those wet-sand kits, and thirty minutes brought the lens to a usable condition.

Final issue will be more expensive, but still within the budget of not using more than the insurance money. The Active Ride Control has issues, which are most likely just accumulators. Basically tanks with a pressurized membrane, in the system to absorb shock of hydraulic pulses. When those go out, the system goes into a locked mode, not adjusting the ride control or ride height dynamically. The system is supposed to stabilize the car by hydraulically keeping it level as you maneuver. It's like the old active suspension systems, except not completely hydraulic. There are springs and shocks, but the top of each strut tower has that hydraulic actuator which can work to lengthen or shorten the strut based on road and driving conditions. The fluid is low, there may be a leak somewhere, but everything I'm reading says the problem is most likely the accumulators, of which there are two main ones, less than 200 bucks each, and easy to replace. The ride control system has a pushbutton to raise the car in the event of being on a rough road, or using tire chains, etc. I have it set on raised to try to minimize tire rub.

So anyway, the car is VERY nice to drive, extremely comfortable, and extremely well-equipped. This thing has more electric motors than some countries! The steering column tilts down to your setting when you put the key in the ignition. The column is power adjustable for height and reach. The outside mirrors are electrically adjustable, goes without saying. The back seats have fore-and-aft power adjustment. The front seats have all the expected power adjustment, plus the seat cushion can move forward or back independent of the seat back, meaning the cushion can be made longer or shorter! Also, even the headrest height is power adjustable. The rear view mirror is not adjusted by power, but its position is set in the memory that saves the positions of the seats and outside mirrors. There are three memories, and seats, steering column, outside mirrors and rear-view mirror go to their memorized positions when a memory button is selected. The transmission has three modes, comfort, sport, and manual. Comfort has softer shifts and earlier shift points, and starts from a stop in second gear. Sport is more aggressive. In either mode, you can manually select a gear by moving the shifter sideways. There is also a Manual mode, with no automatic shifting, you shift with push-buttons on the back of the steering wheel, right side for up, left for down. It can be an AE!!!! Sorta. More motors: The seats have fans in the bottom cushions for active ventilation. ALL FOUR SEATS! They're also heated. ALL FOUR! There's a mesh sunshade in the rear window, deployed or retracted with a dash button. If you half-latch the doors, the car pulls them in fully shut. (OK, that's pneumatic, not electric, but there's an electric motor for the air pump!) The trunk opens and closes electrically, either from the keyfob, a button under the lip, or a button in the driver's door. The rear headrests will lay flat so they don't obstruct the driver's view, or raised when the seats are occupied, all by pushbutton. (Again, pneumatic.)

On balance, I'm very happy with the purchase, and not too afraid of hidden gotchas. There may be some, but we'll deal with them. It's more expensive to insure than the Aurora was, by about 40 percent. It takes premium, and its EPA rating was 14/18. Kind of in the "If you have to ask..." category for fuel economy. It's not safe to drive any distance right now with the tire rub, not being sure the ride control is properly sorted, but that should all be handled in the next month or so.

So pics:

This shows the cord on the sidewall from the body rub on the tire...

Leather is great, wood trim is perfect, although I probably could have taken the floor mat and shaken it out before the picture...

Back seat easily holds real people, not just kids!

KOMPRESSOR!!!!!!!!

The aforementioned weird locking lug, two of which came out OK.

My replacement wheels. No center caps, but I found a set of Chinese chrome caps on eBay for 16 bucks, shipped.

 

[Niehart]

And it's air-conditioned.

Nice find and projects are a good thing.

Hope your home is going good as well.

 

[hppants]

That's a beautiful car. You've got quite a stable now - both 2 and 4 wheeled. I think I would have bought back the Miata too.

Echoing Niehart, I too am hoping the house repairs are going well, and as always, I'm available to help if you need.

 

[Geezer]

Very nice couple of cars. You did very well with the insurance.

Regarding the locking lugs, Some heat from a torch on the lug nuts might help loosen them up. Repeated heat/cool cycles sometimes works. For extreme measures, I once had a flat tire on a van with locks on the wheels and no key. I used a heavy hammer to snap the lug itself and drove on the spare with one lug missing until I could replace the lug. I don't know if that would be as simple on a Mercedes as it was on the Ford van, but worth looking into.

 

[its just rain]

Great entertainment for an early Saturday morning, thank you. You're an excellent writer.

 

[Bounce]

Maybe the roof ribs wouldn't bend if you didn't slap it around?

Nice snag on the AMG. How much of the original HP/Tq is still hanging around? Can you do your own work on it or have a trusted mechanic? I know you said that you hate going to any shop but some Teutonic stuff is double-edged in its over-engineering. It'll be an interesting journey.

I'm in my first German car and love it (Audi RS3). I like the sleeper aspect of your AMG and my sedan. I've smoked more than my share of obnoxious Mustang GTs by more than a car length even on shortish runs. The AMG flavors of a couple of models were on my short list when I was shopping. Both can deliver the power without drama. On the Germanic thing, I found that even the coolant requirement is a new thing to me. The overflow tank is shaped like a squished sphere (ovoid?) and pressurized. It requires something called G13 coolant. I could find C13 which seems to be an or-equal so I'm not stuck buying from the dealership but I couldn't get a confirmation from Audi tech support.

 

[fjrob1300]

Those are called Splined nuts. Pretty common in car circles. Should be able to buy socket at Pepboys or Autosource.

 

[wfooshee]

Speaking of fluids... the fluid for the Active Body Control, and for the power steering (same stuff,) is 20 bucks a quart! I've seen gallon cans for 75 dollars. To flush the suspension hydraulics, you basically remove the return pipe from the reservoir and let it drain into a bucket while you pour new fluid into the reservoir, all the while exercising the system by having a cohort press the height adjust button on the dashboard every few seconds. At a shop, they have the Mercedes computer hooked up and put it into "rodeo mode" which automatically cycles the height adjustment repeatedly. You need ten quarts to do the flush, 200 bucks into a bucket to throw away!

I'm not going to do that flush until I replace the accumulators I described earlier, and see that the height button actually responds every time it's pressed. (Right now it doesn't, it's a very delayed response, or sometimes no response and an error on the dash. Again, knew this going in.)

Working the wheels issue, I tried fitting one front and one rear wheel of the set I purchased, and they do fit, and they clear the brakes. The fronts are a half inch narrower than the wheels on the car, and the rears a full inch. The previous user actually has the stock treadwidth/ratio mounted, just 20-inchers instead of 18s. That means the tires are narrower than they should be, and the sidewalls have to stick out (like I said in the original post.) No wonder the tires rub! Trouble is, the wheels on the car apparently have a thinner hub, and the lug bolts on the car don't reach through the AMG wheels! (The car uses lug bolts into the hub, not lug nuts onto studs.) The bolts I have are bout 10mm short of the factory bolt length. Not quite 50 bucks later and I've got a set of 39mm bolts coming from eBay to replace the 28mm bolts I have.

 

[Bounce]

And you, of course, checked to see what OEM spec on the wheels are supposed to be. Wheel/tire combos have gotten whacky on cars. Enough so that I depend on the Tire Rack "calculator" to confirm everything regardless of where I end up buying from. The Subaru STi was all offsets and crap. The RS3 has wider tires up front than back... as OEM spec.

 

[wfooshee]

These are the OEM size, including offset, just a different model year. The wheel spec didn't change for 2003, just the style. The wheels on the car are not. I intend for the tires to go inside the wheels arches if the suspension travels that far!

 

[Uncle Hud]

SCHWEET! Now you, too, can cruise around slowly at night looking all pimp! AND, you keep a mighty fine MX-5.

Congratulations, brother!

 

[Bounce]

Once you get it sorted, we'll want you to report back your opinion of how nearly 500hp in a sleeper sedan gets delivered.

 

[hppants]

Id imagine quite comfortably, and with a crap load of gasoline.

Congrats again. I really like the color combo on you Miata.

 

[wfooshee]

A crap load of premium...

 

[wfooshee]

Finally got new tires here this week, and installed today. Drove the car to my sister's, about 15 miles west of me. First time I've had it up to highway speed, because the tires that came on it simply weren't safe to drive on.

The muddy look is simply the "yard" reflected in the chrome...

Notice that the fender gap here is nowhere near what it was in the last shot. More on that later...

The wheels are genuine AMG wheels from a 2002 AMG S-Class, same size my car came with but a different style. They fit over the huge calipers, which I made sure of as soon as I had them in hand. Stick-on balance weights don't clear, though, it's that close...

Other work done to the car in the meantime... When I got it, it would sag the rear suspension after driving about 10 or 15 minutes. Like drop the body onto the tires (which I've already described in post #1 as not fitting inside the wheel wells.) The car has the Mercedes Active Body Control suspension, basically an electronically-controlled hydraulic system that can lengthen or shorten the struts to keep the car level under dynamic loads. It has springs and shocks, as well, but they aren't as important in the system as the hydraulics.

Pressure for the hydraulics is generated from a pump, integrated into the power steering pump; it's basically two pumps driven by the same pulley. Pulses of pressure are delivered or absorbed as needed by two pressure tanks, one at each axle. The tanks, called accumulators, are a steel sphere about 8 or 10 inches in diameter, filled with Nitrogen at 1500 psi. The hydraulics are pumped up to 3000 psi by the pump, squeezing the nitrogen in the accumulators behind a diaphragm, and as the valves open to control the struts, the accumulators actually deliver the fluid needed to extend the strut when that valve opens, or accept the fluid delivered when the strut release valve opens. Each strut also has a "lock" valve to prevent any fluid transfer when the CPU identifies an issue through its sensors. Sagging suspension is classic accumulator fail, so I replaced the accumulators. No more sag, but the system still doesn't work. It sets a height at startup and makes no adjustments, and lights an alert on the dashboard, "ABC - Visit Workshop." It's in white, not red, so it's not "critical." Basically, while the car no longer sags, the lockdown valves are engaged, and the only suspension movement is from the springs, which are rather firm, being intended to be a last resort of minor motion in the struts. But it's driveable!!!

The fluid that came out when I relieved pressure to replace the accumulators was BLACK. It comes new as a light green color. That indicates seals and O-rings eroding into the fluid, so a valve body rebuild is in order. First, you have to flush the system, which takes ten quarts of the magic 20-dollar-a-quart fluid, because you don't want that icky fluid flowing around new seals after a valve body rebuild. The rebuild itself is a not-too-complicated DIY job, but the flush is not. It would be if the system moved when I pressed the height selector button on the dash while the engine is running, but it does not. It will go to whatever I set on startup, and stay there. That means if I attempted the flush at home, I'd not be running the old fluid out of the struts or valves, just the plumbing... no good. So to a dealer or a good indy shop to be hooked up to the MB computer and placed in "rodeo" mode, which orders the CPU to exercise the struts, and while it's doing that, you simultaneously fill the pump reservoir and catch the overflow (instead of letting it recirculate like normal.) Here's a guy doing his S55, same car as mine, in his driveway. Guy sitting in the car has the M-B software on a laptop, and the special connector hooked up. Also, those are the wheels my car came with, but I never found a set at a good price. I get my wheels for 600 bucks shipped, and I never found those for less than 350 apiece.


So anyways, that next step (the fluid flush) is fairly expensive, and carries hopefulness but no guarantees. The alternative is to go with an aftermarket kit that replaces the (very expensive) ABC struts with a conventional spring/shock strut system. No active ride height, some say not as good a ride, but the whole system costs just a little bit more than a single ABC strut, and you lose the need for maintenance of the system; the every-year-or-two flush of the fluid, which obviously hasn't been done on mine. Given the fact that the top bushing of one of my front struts is looking pretty not-long-for-this-world, and is not separately replaceable (it's bonded to the strut,) I'm pretty sure that replacing with conventional is the path I'll take.

All of this, plus the suspension, and I'll still be within the insurance money I originally got for the two cars originally!

 

[wfooshee]

Another update to the Merc...

Nothing new in the suspension, yet. It doesn't sag, but it doesn't work, either. Haven't done anything, not the flush, not the valve body rebuild, nothing.

In the meantime, the blower for the ventilation system died. No fan running. I found that I could whack the panel under the dash that it sits above and it would start and run normally, so bad bearings. New aftermarket fan online was cheap, fixed it right up. Couple months later, the AC stops blowing cold. It was cold when I parked the car, wouldn't get cold when I got back in 30 minutes later. It still works once in a while, I'll try it and it's fine, plenty cold, and runs as long as the car runs, then next time won't work. Completely at random, I'll discover it working once in a while. That makes me think electrical, a sensor or switch or connector, but I've not dug into it, yet.

Last week it threw the V-belt that drives the accessories. I was only a couple of miles from home so I continued on, keeping an eye on the temperature. Let me tell you, though, that this thing is a BEAST without power steering!!!! Anyway, belt was 20-ish bucks, readily available at the local parts house. Here's the old belt once I got it out and pulled all the strands out from around the various pulleys:

This belt is behind the supercharger belt, and when I pulled that belt off, I found why the car doesn't have the power I'd expected it to have. The pulley is actually sheared, just sitting there riding its bearing, but not actually connected to the supercharger! The whole time I've had the car I've thought that while it's quick, it's not as quick as I expected. Originally rated at 490 HP, it just didn't seem that strong. So the pulley was broken in the valley of one of the Vs, actually two of the Vs. There's one V-rib still connected to the backplate, and one rib loose in my hand with the pulley. There was some concern about why it was sheared, but the supercharger turned freely by hand, so I didn't have anything there. During the replacement, I found that the pulley would not go over the bearing unless it was absofuckinglutely straight, and it still took some gentle tapping to get it situated, then once started, POOF! it was on. I'm thinking a previous change, like to replace the bearing inside it, was carelessly performed, breaking the pulley.

Found a "new" pulley on eBay for 250-ish bucks. OK, it's not new, it's a salvage from a wreck, but an aftermarket new pulley would be 600-1200 dollars, and I didn't even bother asking Mercedes!   Anyway, installed:

Once you get it sorted, we'll want you to report back your opinion of how nearly 500hp in a sleeper sedan gets delivered.

I threw the belt on, took the car out for a drive, and holy shit!!!! Power issue is rectified! This is my new favoritist-ever car. Acceleration is instant and effortless. No drama, just a bit of V-8-ness out the back and a whole bunch of going-forward-ness toward the front! I activated the traction control several times, which I've never done on dry pavement before. The transmission options all make sense now, too. (It has 2 auto modes, sport and comfort, both with slap-the-stick-sideways manual shifts available, and a completely manual mode using buttons behind the wheel, where a paddle-shifting car would have paddles. All those choices have a place now!)

 

[Bounce]

That's a lot of work. Thanks for sharing the journey.

Re: Wheel Locks and lost keys - Had that happen once and a tire show was able to spot weld something to the nut that gave them purchase to remove the nut.

My whole life I had heard about the maint demands of German vehicles (keep up with it or it will be too much to catch back up with).

An AMG was on my short list (along with some Tesla variant that wasn't the hawk-wing model, and the RS3 I ended up getting (premium gas too)) but the AMGs that were in the same price "ballpark" were down on power in comparison to others on the list. Since getting it, I have gotten used to the output and I've been thinking that 400hp (probably at the crank since it's published specs) could be more. Now... er... maybe I should be happy with what I have. (Wouldn't we all be better off if we could do that?).

All-in-all a very nice outcome to what might have been much worse. Glad it's working out. Oh... and while I would probably pick the "fixed up" AMG, I like the looks of that blue MX-5.

 

[wfooshee]

I got the wheels off by hammering an 18mm socket onto the lock bolts. They were soft enough the socket went on and then I was able to remove them. Getting them out of the socket once removed was a pain... Socket is none the worse for it, it seems.

As for the Miata, it's a ball to drive, but needs a new set of quality coilovers. Previous owner (or one of them, anyway) put on a cheapo set of eBay coilovers, and they are ROUGH. The car is tail-happy, and the springs in it are much stiffer than they ought to be. Apparently the guy was of the stiff equals handling mentality...

 

[wfooshee]

A follow up to the post I put in the How's the weather where you are thread, but it belongs here in my cars after hurricanes thread, since hurricanes are the reason this work is being done.

I've replaced the top on the Miata, finally. It had damage to the stitches way back in Hurricane Michael, along with a slightly bent rib which made folding and unfolding less than smooth, further stressing the seams. I actually bought a new top right after Michael, but I didn't want to install it on the bent frame. Eventually I found a salvage frame on eBay, and there was a cool-enough Saturday the first weekend of October that I set to work. Some pics of the existing top:

Now, I've done some work on motor vehicles. I've changed head gaskets on cars, I've had the motor out of my FJR and split the case, I changed out the suspension on the Miata, but installing this top was the hardest thing I've ever done on a car! The  frame is simple; just three bolts on each side, right behind the doors. The top onto the frame is fairly easy; the top has holes in all the right places for screws and pop-rivets that are required. The problem is around the rear of the top, where it fastens to the car's body.

First, the trim has to come out, no big deal, some of those plastic buttons, and you can lay the carpet down and see the nuts and studs you need to get to. I should add at this time that to reach back there, the seats need to come out. There's also a good bit of the side trim behind the doors and the divider behind the seats. Also, since I've still got the carpet out from the flood (more on that in a minute...) I'm kneeling on bare metal, metal that's not smooth. Anyway, there are about 15 studs around the back and a metal bar goes over those to basically clamp the top fabric onto the body of the car. There's a drain channel that fastens over those same studs. On the car, that catches water that goes down the back of the top, and carries it to drain holes in the body. That rain rail, they call it, is fastened to the top before installation with snap rivets provided in the kit; you lay it out on a table or the floor, line up the holes in the top with the holes in the rain rail, put one side of the fastener in through the hole, put a metal block under it as an anvil, and hammer the other side of the fastener into it from inside the top. When you **** up a rivet so it falls out all bent sideways when you're done, you'll be glad for the TWO extras they sent with the kit. No pressure...

So now the new rain rail is attached around the back of the new top. The top fabric itself is easy to attach to the frame. There are a few places where a metal strip bolts over the top fabric, holes already on place where the screws pierce, and there are 2 pop-rivets needed, again, holes already in place. You can't fit it wrong if you tried.

OK, the top is on the frame, the assembly is ready to go into the car. Three bolts on each side, fastened loosely. Fasten the head rail to the windshield like the instructions say. The you work from inside the car to attach the rear of the top, with the rain rail, over the studs. Except they aren't with an inch of reaching the studs. Shit!

OK, unfasten the front from the windshield. Now I can reach the studs at the back. But to get the three metal bars (one on each side on the sails of the top, and a longer one across the back,) I have to somehow hold 9 holes in the top onto the studs, simultaneously, while I maneuver the bar into place with my 10th and 11th hands...

OK, think. What now? Kids that can hardly read are posting Youtube videos on how to do this! Why isn't it going on for me?

I ended up using the nuts to hold the top fabric on the studs, then started at one end, removed that nut and put the bar in place, replaced the but loosely, and worked across. 45 minutes later, all the studs are bolted down. Now to do the sides, which only have three studs apiece. Well, it appears I shouldn't have tightened the back studs all the way down, the holes in the top won't reach these studs now! So I back them out, and another hour or so later, I have every nut applied to every stud, with the clamping bars in the correct place and all tightened down. Now to close the top at the windshield.
 

This is where the Universe starts having a REALLY good time! The headrail of the top won't come within 2 inches of where it need to be to engage the latches!

I climb up and SIT on the headrail, and the latches still won't engage...

So I get back INSIDE the damn car, and all those nuts on all those studs that I'd finally gotten tightened down... they get backed off until they're just on the studs, with the end of the stud maybe a thread or two down inside the nut. Get out of the car again, and voila!!! I can fasten the header latches! Back inside and tighten the nuts back down, and I hear the top fabric stretching. IT"S DONE!!!! IT'S ON!!!!

But I'm not finished. I remember to tighten the three frame mount bolts on each side, but none of the trim is back in place inside, and some of it won't go back with the top up. I'm not releasing those latches for 2 oe 3 days, though, I can tell you that right now! We gon' let that thing set out in the sun and stretch!

Next post: the aforementioned carpet that's still missing.