Be cool

This weekend I had an appointment to visit a local Ford Dealer to buy a new Focus. I had essentially written off the old wag00n. I had it. That overheating problem was beat, and the repairs on the car were making me weary.

That is, until my friend Bill, aka Redrage from the forum sent me a very sobering email. He mentioned important aspects of the "beater car" especially the taking a beating, and who really wants to make payments on a car that you are using to take a beating. That's where the term "station car" comes from afterall. You drive some cheap-o to the station, not a pretty little nice car. I was all set to buy exactly the Focus I wanted since they brought the car out, and I'd be using it to take serious daily abuse. I'd hate that car before long.

So with that in mind I took one last crack at this overheating problem. The air conditioning condenser looked pretty clogged, and having an obstruction like that IN FRONT of the radiator is not a good thing. I tried blowing air through. Nothing. I tried spraying water through. NOTHING. I tried breaking up the dirt and grease caught in the fins. It took two cans of carb cleaner, two cans of throttle body cleaner, and half a can of brake parts cleaner to free up all the debris caught in there.

On Sunday I was driving the entire day. Two times the temperature shot up and dropped immediately. But none of the overheating like I've been experiencing over the last couple weeks. So I think I might have found it. Maybe this surfaced because the brutally cold winter made up for the blockage.

I'll try bleeding any air left in the system out today. Hopefully that will be the end of that.

A pic that looks a lot like t3h battl3 wag00n--

A 1991 Subaru Legacy Wagon.