What did you do on your car today?

[Haza92]

Installed a new ralliart dash cluster, new EDDY pod filter. looking nice and schmick now

[bongo]

Checked my cabin filter, its filthy. Gave it a vacuum to get rid of the loose dust, will check to see if its part of the up and coming service.

Checked my cabin filter, its filthy. Gave it a vacuum to get rid of the loose dust, will check to see if its part of the up and coming service.

My daughter got quoted $99 to replace. Bought one from Mitsubishi. For $35 for her and one for myself from eBay for $20.

[Lancer1993]

I'll check around for the cabin filter this week, might see what the Mitsy dealer says and Repco.

[Lancer1993]

Okay the Mitsy dealer has a price of $37 but at Repco its $24.

I asked if it was part of the next service (105k) and he said no but they can check it and change it if needed. So I think I'll just get the Repco one and do it before the service., which now might need to be pushed back to January.


Also just did this

[87GDC]

De-badged the rear today. Much cleaner! If the reverse cam wasn't there I would've left the diamonds... I feel it looked too busy with both.

[burfadel]

I put on the muffler that I was going to do. Got the Berklee, sounds great! Felt like there was more power/torque. I guess in a 1/4 mile time it would probably make squat difference due to the WOT state etc, but general driving it feels more free.

It really confused the trip computer though with the fuel economy. In the traffic out there I was getting roughly 7.6 L/100 km, and on the way back with probably heavier traffic (seeing as I got back around 20 minutes ago, 25 km city driving) it settle to around 6.4 L/100 km. Mind you I wasn't accelerating hard, but I was in pace with the traffic.

That is of course nothing to complain about. The funny thing is when I first left the exhaust place driving at a steady 60 km/hr (after the first 2 km is where I hit the traffic), the fuel was reading as... 3.7 L/100 km. That is of course, unrealistic. In the flat sections before it never read that low, I think the muffler did improve the flow considerably and it is just taking time for the computer to adjust. The rest of the system is currently stock BTW.

[Lancer1993]

@87GDC - never got why people like to de-badge their cars, hated when they were removed off my old car when the back was painted. Only badge I took off was the Ralliart one the previous owner stuck on my VRX.

@burfadel - Weird about those fuel numbers, did they do anything with the cat or O2 sensors?

[burfadel]

No nothing done with the cat or O2 sensors. The exhaust is stock right up to just after the last resonator where there is a flange for the muffler. It's the post 2012 MY13? exhaust design that has a normal car layout, not the horizontal muffler. The other interesting thing is I did not have the air conditioner on for the trip out there, but I had it on for the trip back.

They actually gave me the old muffler back (the muffler with the hangers and short bit of pipe to the flange) so I can swap them back over any time. It literally was just the rear muffler changed.

I'll keep an eye on it. If there is an improvement the ECU will probably just overcompensate for it eventually!

[Lancer1993]

Good they didn't just cut the pipe in front of the join like they did on mine, kaking it impossible to do a DIY axle back swap without getting a workshop to weld on another flange... which depending on cost I might get them to do when I get mine done.

[burfadel]

I drove 25 km to Everlast Mufflers because they do a great job and had the Berklee that I wanted. Basically the guy there recommended two mufflers that would give similar performance, a Redback and the Berklee, and he said they were much the same as each other. Apparently Berklee have dropped PEX and they're basically all PEX now under the Berklee name. I have no idea of the model number installed, apparently it's a new batch or range or something. I couldn't find any information on it (still made in Australia). Listed as mild steel, apparently it's actually aluminised steel which is much better (just doesn't look as good as stainless). They put a black coating on it which looks good.

In any case, I'm very happy with it. It was $280 (no stainless tip), sure it probably could have been cheaper getting a similar Berklee muffler online and getting some other shop to install it, but most likelihood they'd do a hack job and use mild steel.

Okay, more on the economy. I went for a drive, and out of interest sake I went on one of the worst roads to determine economy. For those that know Adelaide, I turned into Springbank Road, reset the fuel economy thing, drove up to the top, turned right, went up past Windy point (braking and accelerating past cyclists etc, turned right just after the Windy point turnoff and went up the steepish hill at about 55. I drove a little harder than I would normally through here just to see what economy I'd get. I got 13.2 L/100 km. That probably isn't too bad considering, it should be less if driving normally.

Okay, way back. I reset it again, set off, this time drove quite normally for me. I got... 2.2 L/100 km to the bottom of Springbank Road! So I guess that averages out pretty well . I had the air conditioner on the whole time. Admittedly it's pretty well downhill all the way back, but you do still have to brake and accelerate for corners etc. I do drive up that route actually a couple of times a week, so I'll see how it pans out. Most likely with the driving style the up path will probably reduce in fuel consumption a bit and maybe slightly more on the way down.

Anyways, interesting exercise.

Route taken:
https://goo.gl/maps/DQkxT5aZwnq

[Lancer1993]

Mild Steel is the cheapest.
Aluminised is much better.
Stainless is the most expensive, maybe double the cost of aluminised.

Here on the Sunshine coast the place I went to couldn't get any for the CJ in Stainless, which I think is a bit weird. But I'll probably go for the aluminised one anyway, a free flow unit, not sure if it had a product name or how they will fit it. Seen some at a 45° angle from the center of the car to the outlet point.

[burfadel]

Aluminised is much better. Apparently though the guy at the exhaust shop said that some good brands like Berklee, Redback etc may list them as mild steel where in fact they're aluminised steel. I tend to agree with that, because it doesn't look like bare steel, and the alleged mild steel one on my Magna was on there for around 5 or 6 years and still looked brand new. Not a speck of rust in sight. I guess it all comes down to how much you are willing to spend. The guy basically said for most cars stainless if more about show with it lasting longer just as a bonus. I feel pretty safe that mine will last me, if I got a muffler online and got just any old shop doing it they'd probably use real mild steel.

Friend of mine (seriously not me) got a muffler, cat, and resonator online and got Carline to fit it several years ago. The muffler and resonator, and cat were aluminised steel. They used mild steel piping, and he ended up with 3 brand new looking components with rusted out piping that got holes through it. That is after something like 8 or 9 months mind you. He took it back, they basically told him that because he didn't buy the whole system from them they couldn't be stuffed doing it properly and that he will have to be happy with what he had!

[Lancer1993]

Sounds like mine with the previous owner, the muffler appears to be stainless or something but had been painted and having a chamber it had discolored in the middle through the heat build up. Even my attempts to color it using proper exhaust paint have failed. That aside the issue I've got is several rust holes in the crappy pipe they used to join it up. Wasn't even considering a new muffler, just wanted a better tip.

[ShanDawg]

Installed an AUX cable into the stock radio system. It was actually getting THAT annoying not being able to let passengers play music on trips.
It's super easy for anyone to do if you have a little bit of wiring knowledge.

[Lancer1993]

Wanna guess what color?