%$&^, ... an open rant Options

[slowTA]

I'm sure a few of you are going to be offended, but I don't care.

First on the list (chronological order) is Sirius, all I need is a new power cable because the insulation is coming apart. Well I got it for Christmas and had to get my friends info before I could even talk to them. So I get the info and pretend to be him... turns out its on backorder and they want mine back first otherwise they'll charge the account (my friend) for a full car kit since they only sell the cable with a kit or a new radio. No thanks I'll just wire it to the car and buy another one if I ever want to move it to another car, the little things to get your money.

Second on the list is corbeau, I finally bought the side mounts and generic sliders they sell since their idea of an adapter doesn't work worth a damn. http://www.vilipend.com/~frrax/view_album....bumName=album45 Well the sliders will only work if I put a spacer on top or cut apart the side mount since the locking mechanism gets in the way. I figure I'll deal with that later and bolt together the 1000 pieces of the side mount. Well it looks like there is plenty of adjustability but there really isn't. Most of the holes are unusable since the opening for the lap belt gets in the way. I put it together getting more disgusted because the side mounts will not sit flat on a table after being bolted to the seat, the whole seat rocks back and forth. I loosened ALL of the hardware hoping it will settle, with no luck. If I press down the two high corners the whole seat bends and you can see the 'shoulders' move compared to each other. Then I noticed the front of the mounts are almost half an inch wider than the rear due to the shape of the seat. That'll make locating the holes real fun, if you have to adjust it forward or backward it will never line up with those holes again! After a best guess at tossing it together I get it in the car. The left rear stud in the floor lines up with one of the holes in the mount, but the stud is too short since the bracket is 3/16" thick. The seat is too high, and too far forward. So I sit there and think for a while, decided to start the car up for a while since it hasn't run for a while. Brings me to the third on my list...

Hawker/Genesis battery. For all of you who recommend it, go lick the terminals. Not even enough juice to turn on the check engine light. The winter must have killed it since it started fine in the beginning of December. I bought the battery in October and drove it 2 or 3 times since, that works out to almost $30 per day of actual use. I even disconnected the constant power for the radio. It’s so dead I doubt it will hold a charge again. I was going to get the battery tender but it charges at the wrong rate.

Back to the seat. I sat there quietly thinking for another minute or two. As I'm getting out held the seat down and lifted myself out. Well my luck just got better, my thumbnail got caught on my jeans and bent up about a quarter inch from the tip. Now I'm sitting there struggling to get out of the car with a seat that is too close to the wheel and a pain in the ass to get out of in the first place… with a slightly bleeding thumb threatening to drip on the seat. Once I stoped the bleeding I got the seat out of the car and try to lower it some more. Well thanks to corbeau's brilliant thinking the back of the seat can't go any lower since the nuts won’t fit between the bottom of the seat and the side mount. Now I'm thoroughly disgusted with the seat, it will sit there collect dust and never get used. I doubt they'll take it back since it does have a few minor scratches, I can only guess at their restocking fee. The mount is scratched where the sharp edges of the washers dug in. That brings me to their hardware… it sucks. The bolts are too short and just barely touch the nylon in the lock nuts. You can tell the washers are cheap since they're full of sharp edges. Nice way to build a seat corbeau, and the 'bolt in' adapter, I really appreciate it. I'll make sure to send all my friends.

Hey Kevin, how 'bout a ranting forum so we can let off some steam?

[trackbird]

Hey Kevin, how 'bout a ranting forum so we can let off some steam?

Oh no, this group can rant with the best of them, I'd hate to encourage it.

I had Corbeau seats in my car for a week, then I removed and sold them. I wasn't happy with mine either (though some of our members have them and like them, I didn't get that lucky). Sorry to hear that you had issues as well. Custom brackets seem to be the only way.

[slowTA]

I knew someone here got rid of them since they didn't like the angle, but I figured the side mounts would help the angle.

I havn't thrown anything in frustration in quite a few years, I was real close today.

[John_D.]

One of the good things about the lightweight battery is it will take several full discharge cycles and still charge back up fully. Unlike a stock automotive battery that will take 2-3 of those and be dead for good. The dry cell is almost as good as a marine deep-cycle battery from what I understand, as far as taking discharge cycles in stride. You just need to put a good charger on it.

Sorry to hear about the other issues...

[slowTA]

Thanks John, it's good to hear I still have a chance of salvaging the battery. I've been meaning to get a charger anyway, the ones they recomend are pretty pricey!

[LT4Firehawk]

Been there, done that, still doing it! (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)
Had Corbeaus and they weren't bad, but they definitely weren't great either. Build quality was poor-average (plastic inserts in upper belt holes broke after 1 week), and fabric ripped after another week), adjustability of their brackets suck (my 5'0" wife couldn't reach the pedals with the seat all the way forward, heck I'm 5'8" and I was only 1 adjustment back from full forward).

Belt squeel: Let's see, I've replaced the belt, belt tensioner, alternator, PS pump, belt again (Goodyear this time), and it still squeels! GRRRR!!! (If anybody's got any suggestions, I'm all ears.)

Recaro seats: More accurately their lousy mounts. Got a used set of custom leather (to match GM grey) Recaro Orthopeds (very nice seats actually), and the mounts have now started "rocking". At least they allow my wife to reach the pedals, but I think I'm just going to get a set of stock manual rails and custom fit the seats to them at this point.

Radio: I've been through 3 Monsoon headunits and a PIE aux input unit (to input my satellite radio). All 3 head units have failed with volume control issues, and the PIE aux input unit just up and died not even a full year after I got it. Both stock mid-bass speakers blew as well within a year of each other. At this point I've completely yanked everything but the stock front speakers, and have installed a nice Clarion Proaudio headunit w/MP3 and aux/satellite input, a generic 4 channel amp (running the front stock speakers and a 10" sub) and Kenwood speakers in the B pillars run off the Clarion headunit (with my XM unit run through the aux input). I must say, it was an AMAZING difference. And to top it all off I reused most of the stock wiring and put the new amp in the same place as the factory Monsoon unit.

Speaking of satellite radio, I really dislike XM. The only reason I'm still running it is my wife likes the programming better (I had Sirius in the Porsche until I sold it). I've noticed that reception and sound quality is MUCH better with Sirius than XM, and if you like classic/mainstream rock, the programming is much better on Sirius as well.

Finally, the Porsche. Try spending $10K in maintenance/repairs on a car in less than a year for gripes. At least I pretty much broke even on it, ended up paying roughly $2K total for a little over a year of enjoying it (other than the roughly two months that it was in the shop).

[nape]

Since we're ranting, I bought an 2000 E-150 last month to use as a tow vehicle. Since it's not a daily driver, I've only put about 50 miles on it since then putt-putting around town. Well, I start it up today and there's a noticeable miss right away, but I keep driving it to my buddy's house since it's only 10 minutes away. It's been raining for a couple hours, and I'm hoping whatever moisture is causing the miss will burn off when I get the motor up to temp. As I'm pulling into his driveway, the SES light comes on. GREAT.

After doing a little research when I got home, looks like the coil-on-plug setup these 4.6Ls have is notorious for going out. Looks like I'll have some great fun before I can tow to Blackhawk Farms in a month. .

Well, at least the dog house is easy to get off and it's not as expensive as a cat. converter. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/banghead.gif) (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/rant.gif) (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/rant2.gif) (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

This post has been edited by nape: Mar 10 2006, 04:15 AM

[trackbird]

I knew someone here got rid of them since they didn't like the angle, but I figured the side mounts would help the angle.

I also didn't like losing 15/16ths of an inch of head room. It put my helmet flush with the rubber seals for the T tops.

[zlexiss]

Belt squeel: Let's see, I've replaced the belt, belt tensioner, alternator, PS pump, belt again (Goodyear this time), and it still squeels! GRRRR!!! (If anybody's got any suggestions, I'm all ears.)

Pull the belt off and make sure all the pulleys are clean. I spray them down with brake cleaner, give them a light scuff with scotchbrite to remove harder junk, then rinse with brake cleaner again. Fresh belt or clean it again to get any grease off. Never use belt dressing.

[robz71lm7]

As far as the battery goes you have to have a trickle charger. I know the tender isn't ideal, but that's what I have. The batteries have very little capacity so they do not like to sit. If you don't DD your car they need a charger.

Chris feel free to tack that on to one of the Hawker threads if you don't feel it was made clear. I had the same experience after mine sat for over a month which is what prompted me to get the tender. The "Tender Plus" is around $45 shipped from the right source.

On the seats forget the slider if you want the headroom. Just hard mount them to the floor and be doen with it. Andy on the board (the ORR) has excellent pics of side mounts used on his Kirkeys. Get some flat stock and make your own brackets to allow the side mounts to work in your car. I'm sure you have access to some stuff being on Mini-Baja and all.

Ok re-read your post on the seats. Perhaps you could make your own side mounts? If not sell the corbeau junk locally for a little off list and buy a Kirkey. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

[slowTA]

I've posted in the Hawker battery thread before and just asked about a charger for it yesterday. I was wondering what the best way of charging would be, trickle or full current.

The seat for the Baja was cake, 2 square bars at floor level and bolted it right down. We could do it that easily since the sliders were actually square, it was one of them cheapy $30 plastic seats too!! I wonder what corbeau would do if I call and complain enough... I'll find out next week.

Kevin, I didn't even bother getting the corbeau adapter because of that thread and went with a seat that could use side mounts instead. Who would have thought the seat wouldn't even sit square to the floor? Did anyone see the picture I posted of the side mount bottom rail? They took out all of the material to drill a good hole in!! Do they really think the 4 random holes they drilled would acutally line up with anything? The rest of holes are WAY too big to use for bolting the seat down and the little bit of aluminum thats left is cut in a pretty shape to make them lighter I guess. I wish I had the option of drilling my own holes.

The guy from serius said I had to talk to a different department, put me on hold, then came back and apologized. He gave me a story about locking his keys in the car and using his boss's cell phone or something... I don't care, just send me the stupid $2 made in a sweat shop power cable.

[35th_Anniversary...]

well you might need a full charger to get it back, but you definately need a trickle charger for when you are not using the car. I use one on my f-body (in storage) and y-body (in the winter)

[Crazy Canuck]

since we're complaining... here's some about bad customer service.
worth watching it all.
http://callcentermovie.com/movie/movie.html

[nape]

Fixed my van today. Only cost me $200 (2 coil-on-plugs @ $50 ea, 8 platinum Motorcraft plugs at $4.50 ea, and $50 worth of new C-O-P boots to try to protect the 6 originals) (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/rant.gif)

This does not bode well considering I haven't even made the first payment yet. The things we do to go racing... owning a Ford. Haha.