Do the Dew Review

When a company comes up with a special edition or alternative recipe of one of their flavors, it piques my interest. Some of them just sound bad, and I usually won't try it unless I hear otherwise. Other times I'll think it sounds good, and I'll have to try it!!!

The other day I was at Little Caesar's picking up some pizzas, and they had a new Mountain Dew flavor. This reminded me of the time I was there last year, and they had pineapple Pepsi in their cooler. I had to get a couple to try them out, and let the younger try it as well.

It was... different. It wasn't great. It had some pineapple flavor to it, but it was mostly Pepsi flavored to me. Ah well, I gave it a try.

This time it was a mango flavored Mountain Dew. Apparently, Mountain Dew has previously had a mango flavor, Mango Gem, but this is Mango Rush. It's supposed to have some spice to it, but I wasn't feeling it. It has the mango flavor to it, which is pretty good, and pretty sweet. Much better than the pineapple Pepsi, but I don't think I'm getting any more. I bought three cans, one for myself, and one for the younger and surrogate son, and for three cans you spend about as much as you do for a pizza at Caesars.

Here's one I've tried that I really liked, Mountain Dew Baja Flash, that has a pineapple coconut flavor!!! Yes, I like Piña Colodas!!! I know I got it when we were vacationing in Running Springs at the store there, and I think I got it again somewhere else.

While I was looking through for Mountain Dew pictures, I happened on this picture from Christmas 2021. Another collaboration, this time between Pringle's and Halo, Moa Burger flavor!!! I picked up a tube for both myself and the younger. As I recall, this was another hit, meaty and salty flavored. This was also the year he'd asked for some Spamton glasses, which he's wearing for the picture.

There's a web sourced picture of both sides of the can, since my picture came out a little fuzzy. I like that Mr. Pringle got a boom mic headset!!!

Anyway, the mention of the Spamton glasses reminded me that I'd found him a Spamton T-shirt for Christmas 2022. I'd taken a shot of the graphics on it, most likely in anticipation of making a post, and never used it. Here it is!!!

Looking Back: The Antenna Install

I have made reference in a couple of recent posts about the antenna I installed on the Sky. This was back in January of last year, so it's been a while. It's a bit of a story, and here it is!!!

As I mentioned, the original style antenna is a tall solid mast, and it's on the rear fender, right where it's in the way when you are putting the top down or up. All that remained of the original was the plastic base, and around an inch of the original mast. I purchased a little rubber antenna of the style that had been popular during the mini truck craze of the 80's. I had figured I would just remove the original, and plug the replacement in wherever the original cable plugged in. Of course, the radio is a ways from the stereo head, so as a plan B I was thinking I could just splice the cable as needed.

Not previously mentioned, Zonker actually has two antennas, the standard over the air antenna mentioned, and a satellite radio (and probably OnStar as well) “Shark Fin” antenna on the middle back of the rear deck, and of course, both have cables that pass from the trunk area to the interior.

I removed the rear body panel and the center console cover, figuring they would pass through and probably run down the console. That's what you see here, there's a lot going on. The box in the middle of the picture is, I'm pretty sure, the satellite radio receiver. Towards the bottom of the picture, you can see the subwoofer of the Monsoon audio system (which I also previously mentioned that I had repaired by gluing the cone back to the surround) and towards the top is the Monsoon amp. I tried to trace the over the air antenna cable, but was only able to positively ID the satellite cable.

I took a step back, and reconsidered the approach I was going to take. The old antenna base was going to have to be removed to put the new one on. While I was antenna shopping, I saw that almost all of the antenna masts are internally threaded. I went ahead and worked the stub off, and unscrewed the large flat nut on the top of the base, which revealed the threaded rod base. The replacement antenna has a near opposite approach, with a threaded bolt extending down, which is captured and kept from turning with a couple of flats in the metal portion of the antenna base. OK, what can I do with this??? How about using a nut in place of the bolt, and screwing it down to the original threaded stud??? Yes, that could work, but it may end up needing to be shortened, or some sort of adapter made up. I found a flange nut with the correct thread, which of course was too wide for the slot in the metal base. I used a cut off wheel to slice two sides off, and shortened one end, to make a nut where everything lines up.

Next up, how to get everything to line up... The metal base to the antenna is too small to work with the original plastic base. The plastic base for the new antenna has a similar shape, a tapering cone, with the correct size recess for the metal base, and a little extra flange and height on the bottom. Since I already had the cut off wheel set up, I trimmed the flange and a little height off the base, and things were getting close to the right height to sandwich it with the original base, but of course the shape wasn't matching up. I ran a bolt through the newly trimmed down base, and chucked a couple of nuts in my drill, and attached it to the drill. I had the younger run the drill, while I used some coarse sandpaper to shape it down into more of a spherical shape. After the shape was good, I used fine sandpaper and a sanding pad to smooth it out, and it actually polished up beautifully!!!

It ended up looking something like a snowman, with a base cone of the original base (which actually follows the fender contour nicely), the new base turned spherical, and the metal base, which already has a round shape, being two halves that you can use to adjust the angle!!!

At the same time I had ordered the antenna, I also picked up a couple of phone holders. When I had started working from home, I picked up a wireless charger stand for my phone, since I was using my phone a lot for work (I've got a whole folder of work apps I need to uninstall), and the wireless charging was working great!!! I figured I'd look into a similar holder for the cars, and found a couple of these for not a lot. I still hadn't come up with a good holder for Kutcher, and since it tends to get a lot more use, I'd put one in it first. I'm usually not impressed by suction cup style bases, but these work great!!! It's a clear silicone cup with a release lever, and I was able to stick it to the middle of the console, and have the phone holder just back from the gear shift. Just recently, something went wrong with the indexing of the arm, and now it wants to rotate down, guess I'll be taking it back to the drawing board soon. Also, for some reason, it doesn't seem to charge nearly as well as the home unit did. Anyway, here's the one I put in the Sky, it sets it right between the instruments and the heater controls, and it's stuck to the smooth part of the dashboard right over the middle HVAC vents. Lights up a cool blue!!!

So, there you are!!! 80's antenna installed!!! Not going to snap off putting the top up or down, and it seriously improves reception!!! Cool 80's aesthetic vibe, as well!!!

And a happy 512 day to all!!!

Sid's Tube

Cat toys are always hit and miss. You may see something you think your cat will love, and they all but ignore it. You can have some trash you're throwing away, and they'll pull it out and have the time of their lives!!! But sometimes, you'll get something they'll love!!!

Some time ago, my wife ordered a collapsible fabric tube, about cat-sized diameter by around 2 feet long. He loves his tube!!! Every time someone would come into the room, he'd race over to it and stick his front into it!!!

So when she located this one, it was a no-brainier. It's the same idea, spring loaded rings around cat-sized, but it's about 8 feet long with a S-bend to it. It also has a couple of windows cut out of the sides.

Predictably, he loves this one, too!!! Once again, whenever anyone comes into the room, he heads for his tube, and sticks his front end in.

I'll put my foot into the other end, and move it around a little. He'll do the cat butt wiggle, then launch himself into the tube like a spring loaded Tigger!!! Sometimes he'll collapse the tube to around half it's length!!!

He'll also reach out the side windows and bat and claw at you. It's great to see our boy having fun!!! I don't think I'd mentioned, but before he broke his leg, it seemed like he was growing out of his kittenhood, but after he got out of the cage, I feel like he had the mindset that he's going to play like a kitten every day!!!

The 80's Called, They Want Their License Plate Frame Back

License plate frames aren't much of a big deal to me, but they do give it something of a finished look. I got a patriotic one for my first Saturn which was pretty cool, but faded as it aged. 3 came with a Saturn of Permian Basin dealer frame, which had the white faded out on the lettering, which I cleaned up, spray painted silver to match the car, and sanded the letters to reveal the black plastic and painted the Saturn logo red. When I sent her away, I swapped the frame to Scruffy. The silver doesn't go as well, but it's in memoriam. Back when I was running a CNC machine, I had come up with a few programs for various frames that I could add text to, my favorite being the 512 frame I left on Nasty. I'd always figured I'd make up a couple more of those, but got out before I had a chance. Zonker didn't have one when I got her, but I took care of that recently!!!

I was emptying a trash can, and someone had tossed out one of those “Drive Pink” license plate frames. I'm all for supporting a cause, but I think they look hideous, and unless you got your car from selling Mary Kay, they really don't go with any of the cars they are on!!! I'd never really looked closely at any of them before, but since I was up close, I got to see that it's actually a quality piece, made of steel (I think). I could come up with something with this...

I sanded it down, and gave it a few coats of gloss yellow. Then I used skinny masking tape to do a series of random stripes, reminiscent of Eddie Van Halen's Frankenstrat from the “1984” album. Interesting, when I was looking for info on that guitar, I discovered that he retired it after they played the Us Festival '83, which was the first concert I went to. Maybe one day I'll do a post on that!!!

I then applied a few coats of gloss black, removed the tape, and did a few coats of a clear reflective paint. That flattened the look of the gloss black, which I hadn't foreseen, but I actually like the way it came out!!! It had a little bleed around some of the cross points of the tape, but it's good enough.

As I'd previously mentioned, I had also added an 80's reminiscent rubber antenna, and I feel like the frame also has something of an 80's vibe. I was going to see if I had some stainless button heads to install it with, and came across some tamper resistant screws from back when I was doing packaging tooling. Installed it without the plate for a picture with black oxide screws, then decided that stainless steel ones would be better, since they won't rust.

Took a picture close up, like the blank one, then when I was at the bank, I realized a full back picture would work better, with the black top and exhaust valance panel. Bonus, the antenna is also visible!!!

One Headlight

When we got my wife's car (Kutcher) most of the systems worked fine. The dome lights worked for a little, but then stopped working. I picked up some replacements from the junkyard, and one of these days I'll get around to putting them in... If I can locate them again!!! I went looking for them a while ago, and didn't find them.

Not long after we'd got it, one of the headlight bulbs burned out. I pulled it out, it was a Sylvania Silver Star, and replaced it with one that I had from my bag of light bulbs, quite possibly one that had been in 3. A little after, the other one burned out, as well. It was also a Sylvania Silver Star, and I've made a mental note to never buy that brand!!! Replaced it, and went on for a while with no issues.

After a while, the driver's side burned out again... or so I thought. I tried a different bulb, and it wasn't working either. I messed with the socket, and it would work in certain positions, but not when it was just at rest. OK, bad socket. Picked up a replacement from Auto Zone, and soldered it in place, with heat shrink over the junction. It had heavier wire than the original, and looked like a quality piece. It worked again... once again, for a while.

A few weeks later, it started flickering on and off at random. I checked the bulb again, and the socket still looked fine. Cleaned the socket and contacts, and gave the contacts a little tweak to make better contact, and it was... no worse. I messed with it a little, and it looked like it had a break farther back in the loom. I'd wiggle it, and it would come on. I gave up, and drove it for more than a year with one eye.

Around 6 months ago, I had the idea to get a relay, and make it switched from the passenger side light. I could do both wires, but it's probably just a break on one side, so before I start in, I get my meter out to check which side is flaky. When I check, though, both sides seem like they're good. Huh, was it just another bad socket all this time??? Had a spare Saturn socket, albeit with fairly light gauge wire, and put that in, and once again, it's working fine!!!

For a while, anyway...

A couple months ago, it went out again. When I got around to pulling the bulb out and checking for a burnt out bulb, I discovered the plug was as seen here, burnt and melted!!! I had seen Rock Auto had a high temperature bulb extension socket for not much, so I ordered one. It was shown as a male-female extension, but what arrived was a pair of the plug ends. Soldered one on, and it's working again. Hopefully, it really is high temperature and takes care of the issue for good!!!

Conversely, when I got the Sky, it needed some things done. As I mentioned when I got it, there were several questionable “upgrades” done to Zonker. It had a lot of the lights changed out to LED or xenon bulbs, and other than the low beams, I'd changed 'em all back to conventional lights and got the turn signals working right. Also, the turn signal lever wasn't canceling when I got it, and I replaced it, as well. Also adjusted the coil overs up near stock height, added a bluetooth adapter, and as previously chronicled, got the exhaust quieted down some. Not mentioned, shortly after I'd got it, the check engine light came on, and clearing the codes didn't last, and I've just been driving it as it was and knowing I'd have to do something before smog check time (which is coming up). A little after I'd had the exhaust done, the light turned off on it's own!!! I checked, and the old codes were still in there, so I cleared them, and they haven't come back, so hopefully all it was was the exhaust leak.

The radio antenna was broken off when I got it, and it didn't tune very well because of it. Because of where it's positioned on the rear flank, it is apparently an issue with the Skys, so I got one of the short rubber antennas that had been popular back in the 80's. Made a world of difference in the radio quality. The Monsoon subwoofer speaker cone was detached from the foam surround, and I glued it back into place with some RTV to fix the speaker rattle.

Back to the time when we were having constant red flag days, and the Sky had been moved to the bottom of the hill, as I was getting ready to move it back, I noticed that one of the projector driving lights was missing. Really??? Just missing??? Did someone seriously manage to steal one of my lights???

I opened the hood, and it turned out the light had only been rotated off to the side, but the light bulb itself was just gone, with the plug dangling.

When I finally got some free time, I took the light out to see what happened. Turns out, of the three mounting points, only one was remaining. I checked another mounting point, and the plastic tab was still there. I epoxied it back on, and while I had the light out, I discovered that the bulb and it's metal base were still inside the light!!! The first outside picture shows a big black scrape right below the light hole, I'm pretty sure I smacked a tire tread, and that's probably what broke everything!!!

The Return to Dana Point

A couple of things I do quite a bit: Take an early season vacation, and go back to places I've vacationed at before!!! Last month, we did both again!!!

The last time, it was for our anniversary celebration, so this was the first time for the younger. Stayed at the same Best Western in Dana Point, right across from the beach. I didn't opt for the room with the upcharge this time, just took one that sleeps four. I'm not sure they even have one that sleeps 4 with the improved view and balcony, but we didn't use the balcony much last time. The room was on the back side, so possibly a little less train noise from there. It didn't shock me awake this time, so either that was the case, or I was ready for it this time.

First day we were there we headed straight to Selma's again for more Chicago Deep Dish!!! It was a little early, and we did manage to get in on their happy hour for some pretzel bites as an appetizer. It was awesome, as it was last time.

Just as an aside, I had made a trip to a thrift store again to get a “work” T-shirt, and one for a pajama top, since a lot of mine seem to have gone missing. Ended up with three, one is a big, lightweight coral colored one for the PJ's (that I've used for general purpose as well), another is a Buc-ees with a nice Texas theme (it's a medium, so it's towards the smaller size of fitting me well. We'd stopped into a Buc-ees on our Texas vacation), and the final is shown here, a cool design, “McGuffin Creative Group, Established 2004”. Love me some McGuffin!!!

Last time we were in Dana Point, the weather was phenomenal. Not so much this time, a lot of gray skies. When we'd headed out and for most of the drive, it was bright an sunny. Just as we neared the coastline, it got grayer. It was mostly like that while we were there. When we arrived back at the lodgings, one of the guys camping across the street at the beach had a nice fire going in a fire ring. I considered heading over and warming myself to their fire, it's been forever since I've been to a fire on a beach!!!

The next day, we got in on another whale watching trip!!! I located one that was supposed to have underwater viewing pods, that sounded very cool. However, the ship with the viewing pods is being worked on, so we were on a catamaran. As previously stated, it was cold and gray. It has an upper viewing deck, side and bow access, and an enclosed cabin. My wife mostly stayed in the cabin.

The boy and I ventured out to the bow, and the breeze just cuts right through your hoodie!!! Didn't stop us. We headed to the upper deck, and shortly after they announced a sighting, looks like a juvenile blue shark, they said. Looked like the pictures I've seen of the Loch Ness Monster to me!!!

It just cruised along without a care in the world, and we were near it for several minutes. Not long after it was spotted, they changed the ID to a thresher shark. In my second picture, and in real life, you can somewhat make out it's long tail that it uses to smack stuff around!!! Pretty cool!!!

Always love seeing pelicans. Here was a line flying low over the fairly flat ocean. I also love seeing when they're flying high, and spy their lunch and fold into a spear and dive straight down!!!

They headed on, and just a little later, they spotted a pod of dolphins. It wasn't the massive size of the last one we'd seen, but it was good sized, and there was a good amount of action.

Hung around them for a while, then it was time to head back in. Once more, didn't see whale one!!! Ah well, it was still pretty fun. On the way back in, the obligatory swing by the buoy with the sea lions on it.

I noticed that this time, we passed the green buoy, and I was pretty sure the last time we'd gone past a red one. Went back to the pictures from then to confirm, and yeah, it was red. Didn't have a picture from last time, so here's one from 2021, when the sun was actually out!!! (I think it was gray most of while we were out last time as well, but it was clearing by the time we came back)

I don't remember if we had been discussing Chinese food prior to it or what, but I located a Chinese buffet place that we headed off to that evening.

The next day, after having a nice breakfast again at the hotel, the sun made an appearance in the afternoon!!! The younger an I headed across to the beach, and walked a ways up.

Spotted this white, looked like quartz based rock among all the dark ones, so we posed with it.

Later in the afternoon, we finally made the trek down to San Clemente for some Taco Bell. There's another thing I tend to do on vacation, spend a considerable amount of time looking for somewhere to eat!!! I think I was looking for places that serve dogs, and nothing really grabbed me, so Taco Bell never fails!!!

My wife wasn't feeling well, so she stayed back. Of course, I had to head down to the pier!!! Once again, just like the time we'd gone to the Ventura pier, he neglected to bring a jacket!!!

I hadn't mentioned last time we'd been out on the pier, but to the south there's an artificial reef, the Wheeler North Reef, that pokes up above the surface. I didn't get a shot of it, but there the boy is pointing it out!!!

As before, great views from the parking area, so rounding it out with a couple of shots from there!!!

Good Times!!!

Axed Again

I haven't done an update on my broken 5th metatarsal in a while. I went to see my doctor towards the end of March, and he took a look and declared me mostly healed and said I didn't need to come back, unless I had a complication. At the previous appointment, he'd said I could go from the boot to a “hard sole shoe”, which isn't really a hard sole shoe, but a low-top version of the boot. He can get me one, for about $35, or I can get one myself for probably around $20-$25, so that's what I did. I've been going around with that for the most part. I asked the doctor about if I should keep using it, and he said it's up to me, some people are just done with it, others wean themselves slowly. I'm still feeling some movement, and a clicking feel, without it, so I've been sticking with it, and probably will for some time still.

Anyway, long story longer, I'm finally able to drive again, so the week before last I go in for my 2 days, and then again this week. I'm not crazy about it, my start time is 6 AM, and with going in I have to get up around 4 to shave, shower, get dressed, and drive in. Makes for a long day.

Yesterday in the morning part of my day, my supervisor (I've had a lot of supervisors in my time there, and I think he's been one of my favorite ones) asks me to join him in his zoom room. He lets me know they are letting me go. They are giving me, what is to me, an amazingly unprecedented severance package.

When I was interviewing with them, after hearing some about the company, I told the interviewer I could see retiring from there, and I would have liked to. Apparently it wasn't in the cards. Oh well, I had a good run there, and as I said after I started there, it's the best company I've ever worked for.

I had made mention previously that axing day had traditionally been on Thursdays, but they had gotten away from that for a while. Coincidentally, it was also a Thursday the last time I had been axed as well. We are parting ways on much better terms than I was with the previous employer!!! Almost made it a full 19 years.

There's a song lyric I know that I've heard, something along the lines of “Wonder what I'm going to do with all this free time”. Haven't been able to figure out what song it's from (if I ever figure it out, I'll post in the comments most likely). I have a bunch of thing swirling in my head that I can do. My wife suggested yesterday that we could go on a cruise. That sounds good. I've been working fairly non stop since 1987. Since they are taking such good care of me, I'm thinking I'll take something of a sabbatical from working for a while!!!

Good times!!!

Car Stuff with a Broken Foot

I had mentioned last year I was thinking of doing another car post with all the things I'd recently done. I can't even remember a lot of what I'd done, but with the vintage of cars I own, there's always something!!! Here's a rundown of a few that have been done since the start of this year.

To start off, I'd mentioned that we had red flag days during the fire season, and my wife had driven the Falcon down to the bottom of the hill during that. They'd done a lift of the red flags, then after a couple of days it was back on. Eventually, we got the expected heavy rain season that always seems to follow a nice burn, resulting in mud slides in the scorched earth areas. Of course, we didn't have any fires in our neighborhood, and the rain wasn't as bad as some areas. Anyway, we haven't had a red flag day since, so that's something.

Since my foot was broken, and it wasn't bothering anyone there, I'd left the Falcon down there. After the rains, I drove by and saw that the back of the Falcon had acted as a catch basin for the various muck and debris that had been washed down by the rain!!! Guess it's time to move it back.

I had my wife drop me off one day when we were coming back, and did the classic pop the hood and remove the air cleaner, and shoot some quick start down the carb to fire it up. Got in, and hit the key. It fired as expected, and I let off the crank... but I could hear the starter was still engaged. It often won't stay running on the first fire anyway, and that's what happened, giving me a chance to see what was going on with the key. Messed with it, and it would go back farther than normal to the off position, and it didn't feel right. Gave it a little more quick start, and managed to get it running, even though I had to pull back on the key to keep it from keeping cranking, and drove it back and parked it. Afterwards, I messed with the key some more, and things definitely weren't right.

Oh yea, the back end that had caught all the crud was kind of a mess...

Started feeling around behind the dashboard, and the back of the ignition switch came apart on me!!! I've seen this before...

I knew it had happened before, but I couldn't remember when. Turns out it was about 17 years ago!!! I had no idea that it had been that long!!! I thought I'd looked into the price for a new one back then and had made mention of the price, and maybe I did but I can't find the mention now. Anyway, it was only about $20 from Rock Auto, delivered. A couple of weeks ago, I went down with my full dang foot boot on, and swapped it out. It's kind of a pain working up under the dashboard, and doubly so with my foot in the boot!!! Took a while, and it wasn't super easy, but it wasn't that hard to do. It's all good now!!! Oh yea, by the time I was able to move it back, the weather had turned to our typical beautiful Rose Parade weather, and all the dirt and silt that had washed down had turned into a fine dust, and was getting blown everywhere!!! All the cars down there were a mess. We've had a couple of rainy days since, and it's rinsed a good amount off.

On to the other thing that's been going on!!! One of the things I was going to mention in the never brought to realization car post of yore, I put a new engine in the Matrix!!! Ever since we've had it, it had an oil leak. The consensus was that the usual place it will leak is the timing chain tensioner, which I'd replaced, and then went back and replaced the seal and added some RTV when it still was leaking, all to no avail. I just lived with it. One day when the younger and I were out in it, it was making the low oil valvetrain warning noise, and I checked the oil, which was low as expected. I planned on driving it home and adding a quart, and there we headed. On the way, it got louder and louder, and I was planning on exiting and finding a store to buy a quart to add. Turned out as I decided to do so, we are on a long stretch with no exits, and the power starts dropping. I pulled to the side preparing to call a tow truck. A freeway service truck appears, and gave us a tow off the freeway, then I called and got it towed to our house. The engine was toast, I considered just junking it, then looked into the JDM take out engines. If you don't know, in Japan they have strict emissions standards, and at around 40,000 to 50,000 miles vehicles are usually retired. The engines and transmissions are shipped over, and it turns out for about $1,000 you can pick one up. I've now got a connection at a local shop, and he installed it for $800. Couldn't have bought a similar replacement for that!!!

Anyway, at some point last year the registration was due, and I managed to space out and forget to send it!!! They were kind enough to send a reminder with a past due charge, which I immediately sent in. A few weeks later, they send back a reply, “Oh yea, you need a smog check, too!!!” Thanks. Anyway, it shouldn't be a problem, we've had 2 previous checks with no issue, on an engine with a lot more miles.

Once more, this was right after I'd broken my 5th metatarsal and was fairly incapacitated. My wife takes her over to get the check done. She calls me up, and it's failed. It has a code that the O2 sensor heater isn't heating up as it should, and the replacement is something like $220 with installation. I could do it for the cost of the parts for considerably less, if it wasn't for that broken metatarsal!!! Go ahead, have 'em take care of it. Oh, and there's a molded tube from the valve cover to the intake that has a big crack on the end, that needs replaced, too. Picked that up from the dealer, and surrogate son and the younger put that in, along with swapping the battery in Scruffy, under my supervision. Reset the computer, and drove it for a couple weeks to get a good data set, and checked the codes. Still has the same O2 sensor code. My wife takes it back, and they say, “Oh yea, you've got the check engine light on the dash that's burned out, it's not going to pass without that.” I figured it'd be like every dashboard I've ever dealt with, with twist out light holders. Surprise, they're not!!! The dash has the circuit board with LED lights everywhere on it for all the indicators and dash lights. I considered taking it to a shop to get the LED replaced, then remembered I had several extra LED dashboard lights I'd bought for Scruffy. Took one apart, destroying all the LEDs in the process, and then a second one, and replaced the one for the check engine. Oh, and if I didn't think the seller was shady before, the LED for the check engine light wasn't burned out or not working, it was missing!!!

Reset the codes again, drove it for a week, and the O2 code was still there. Took it back, this time I was able to come along. Still has the code for the O2 sensor, and the check engine light is burning bright (the original was probably red or amber, I've replaced it with a white one, and it's pretty bright!!!) and they tell us so. Yeah, you replaced the O2 sensor and that's done nothing for the code, time to dig deeper. The technician pops the hood, and says, “sounds like you've got a big vacuum leak.” I was in the passenger seat with the car running, and I could hear it from there. I get out and am observing from the side. He messes with the recently replaced molded hose to the valve cover, then sprays some carb cleaner on that end. It smooths out, and the fluid immediately gets sucked away from the edge of the valve cover. He declares that it's leaking vacuum from the valve cover gasket. Sounds strange to me, but I did see it with my own eyes, and it does have a large hose running to the intake right above there, so I guess it's plausible. “We'll replace that valve cover gasket for $220...” No, you will not. Another $20 to Rock Auto, and I've got a new valve cover gasket in hand. A week ago today I put it on. The old one looked like it was in excellent shape. Took quite a while cleaning out a lot of the varnish on the inside and grime from the outside of the valve cover, and it looks really good!!! I had been thinking of putting the plastic engine cover back on, I had picked up some knobs so it wouldn't require any tools to remove on the old one, and repaired some of the stripped out holes, but never got to that point, and since it looks nice now, I may never do that.

Got it all put back together, and it still sounds like there's a big vacuum leak. I start spraying around on my own, and once again, it smooths out towards the end of the valve cover. Hmmm...

I Look a little closer, and directly under there it has the fuel injector. Give it a direct spray, and it smooths right out!!! IT WAS NEVER THE VALVE COVER GASKET AT ALL!!! Pulled the first injector out, and the seal is gone!!!

I checked the local Auto Zone to see if they've got the fuel injector seals. They have an $8 kit with 4 seals, or a $15 kit with 3 different seals. I head over (it was a beautiful day, I dropped the top on Zonker and had a nice cruise) and showed the guy the $8 one. He heads back and comes out with it. It's a set of O-rings for the tops of the injectors. OK, guess that's why there's a $15 kit, let's see that. It was the one. Brought it home and put it on, and fired it up. Got out, and it's spewing gas from the fuel rail at the other end. Guess I'll need those O-rings after all. I head back, and he'd never put them away so they were easy to get. Got 'em home, and put them on. But, they didn't seem to be a good fit on the injectors, they seemed too large. Put it back together, and it's still spewing fuel. I took it apart again. One of the O-rings had split, and one was pushed out of the bore. I had an extra from the first seal kit, and I put it on, put it together again, and had the same problem. Rage quit.

I went the nuclear option, got on Rock Auto again and ordered 4 new injectors. Selected the 2-day delivery to have them here on Friday so I could hopefully get them on before work on Saturday. They didn't arrive. Being in customer service, I now fully understand the phrase, “Boned by UPS'. They were supposed to then deliver on Saturday, and to no one's surprise they didn't. The tracking didn't show movement on Monday, either, but they finally showed up just before I was off work. That's how I spent my first hour of daylight savings' time, putting them in. Seems to work fine, we'll see if it does the job!!!