Welcome a new member of the family: Balto!

[MP81]

what polk towers did ya get? i have all polk for my home theatre

A pair of Monitor 75Ts, moving my Pioneer bookshelfs to the rears (still not connected yet, haven't gotten around to it). The speakers sound unbelievable.

[s.reef]

what polk towers did ya get? i have all polk for my home theatre

[MP81]

Some updates, since it's been a bit, apparently. I suck at getting on the site anymore...that goes for most forums.

Anyhow...

Ever since I hit that piece of concrete, my wideband was acting goofy - it would throw an Error Code 8 much more often than before (which was rare, if ever, during regular driving. I went to remove the sensor and had to bend the exhaust tunnel heatshield, something I never had to do before to install/remove it. I ran a sensor heater calibration and a free air calibration, reinstalled the sensor and lowered the car back to the ground. After the sensor would warm up, it would work for 15 seconds before having a panic attack and resetting to the standard flashing "7.4" and giving me an Error Code 8. Dead sensor, for sure - that wire was shoved into the heat shield edge, and me moving it really killed it. So I just unplugged the gauge and drove without it.

About a week later, I think my car got a bit jealous when I finally decided to spend some money on myself and bought a pair of Polk Audio towers...because the next day, after changing the oil, I noticed the heat exchanger pump no longer worked.

Then that night, I noticed that the right headlight low beam no longer wished to function (the high beam had been out for a few months, but the low still worked).

Then, Monday on the way either into or back from work, I noticed the car howls at speed...50 and 75 seem to do it the worst...more than likely one of the hubs is going...something in that general area. On one of the sides...


So last Wednesday, the first of the fixes came.

I had siliconed the relay housing of my new HID harness - as that is the one part that corroded out on my original DDM harness, causing the HIDs to no longer work. This solved my headlight issue, and finally allowed me to have HIDs once more...

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One thing down. Last Saturday, with the great weather it brought, was a perfect day to swap the heat exchanger pump, as well as install the new wideband sensor and reconnect the gauge.

Got her up on stands and went to work (check out that there lack of chassis flex!)

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I was expecting a huge mess and lot of swearing swapping the pump, but other than the top hose being less than enthusiastic about coming off, it was much easier than I thought. (When I installed it, I did it from the front/top, with no intake manifold or supercharger).

The slow, but non-messy way to drain the coolant...
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New on left vs. ~50k (plus however many it had on when I bought it used...) miles...

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Also, while underneath the vehicle, I may have found a lead on what is causing that new vibration that occurred (which I have since gotten used to) after the impact with the concrete chunk...it may be an illusion based on lighting, part breakdown and being upside-down, but it really looked to me that the bolt that attaches the trans mount to the transmission was not quite straight...will have to investigate that one...

Been driving on the hub since I noticed that on Monday, but I figure I can wait a little bit. We shall see how it enjoys a few runs down the strip tomorrow...

[MP81]

Does that mean its getting real wheels now?

Also one of the perks of not driving it snow

[sman]

Does that mean its getting real wheels now?

[MP81]

Haha to each their own, I just can't picture an economy car like a Cobalt being a garage queen.

Garage queen? Hardly.

And i wouldn't really consider it an economy car anymore...it just happens to get decent gas mileage occasionally, haha.

It won't be all winter it is parked. Just shit days. We take the Cav for those anyway.

[meissen]

Haha to each their own, I just can't picture an economy car like a Cobalt being a garage queen.

[MP81]

So wait you're going to get a daily driver and your Cobalt isn't going to be a daily?

Heck yeah they do, but if it's a fun economy car like a Cobalt, drive it and enjoy it. I love driving my v6 Camaro year round... it's just a fun car to drive.

It's for the same reason you stopped driving Red Alert year round. I have a lot of time, money and love into this car. Just don't really want to put it through another winter. Plus...it being lowered really isn't fun to drive in anything more than 2-3" of snow.

did you replace the door speakers too

Yeah, I did that in later summer 2011. I have the A/D/S 335is component speaker set in there. I think I posted pics around that time in this thread.

[Gregs_gsxr]

did you replace the door speakers too

[meissen]

Heck yeah they do, but if it's a fun economy car like a Cobalt, drive it and enjoy it. I love driving my v6 Camaro year round... it's just a fun car to drive.

[c0ncEpT]

This is why cars from the south are so much cleaner than Michigan cars. Michigan winters destroy a car.

[meissen]

So wait you're going to get a daily driver and your Cobalt isn't going to be a daily?

[MP81]

Well, I guess it's been a while since I updated this...been so busy lately after work there's no time really to jump on, and Chrysler blocks the site. Gonna try and get on during lunch via my phone.

Anyhow, to catch the topic up... In January the battery took a shit - as in, it would drain overnight, especially since that was during those weeks where it was REALLY cold out. Luckily Brian (bri2203) came to my rescue and hooked me up with a brand new Delco 60-series (I believe) battery, and that front has been great ever since.

Next on the list happened the day before Valentine's day. We were on our way home and got off at the Pierson exit of 75, like we normally do. There are three lanes, the middle turns either way. I was in the far left lane, as is typical. Unfortunately, since Michigan doesn't take care of their roads at all, and this being in Flint, so it's even worse, a giant chunk of the road had come up in front of me. I had a guard rail to my left and a car to my right, and vehicles behind me - I had nowhere to go, and I slammed into it. I'd estimate this piece of concrete was a good 8 inches in diameter. It smashed into my heat exchanger first, luckily barely touched the radiator, and then slammed into the engine crossmember, going under it (the car essentially climbed over the chunk of road) right below the front trans mount. It seemed to split into a few pieces - one of which continued to the back of the car where I believe it took a nice chunk out of the powdercoating on my brand new swaybar...Since this happened, the car has developed a new vibration, and seems to act different when braking...I'm just waiting for it to get warmer out before I can truly see what happened - and then submit a claim for the damages to the state of Michigan. I'm
just glad the heat exchanger doesn't leak...

Pics below...

A view of the heat exchanger dent from above the vehicle.
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And from below...

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The little dent in the radiator
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The nice giant scrape where it went under the front trans mount...

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Scrapes on the bottom of the trans pan
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The view back
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Then, about a week ago, I came out to my car, which had been parked in the garage for about four or five days, and noticed that my grill was cracked and a chunk of it was missing. The last time I had driven my car to work, I parked it with the nose facing the outer fence...I have no clue how this even happened...

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A few days after that, on our way into work, I was behind a pickup with a plow (this was a morning at 6:30AM - and it hadn't snowed in days...). The bottom of the blade was all chunks of snowy ice. He hit a bump, they all fell off and sprayed my car with pretty decent size icy snow...I was more worried it would have cracked my bumper - or my windshield...but it did leave a nice big chip out of my hood...ugh...


Definitely was a rough couple months for my little Balto...after I hit that chunk of concrete and found the new vibration, I honestly didn't even enjoy driving it anymore because I was so worried at what it might be. I've driven it more since then, obviously, and there's been a good many times I've gotten to enjoy wide-open throttle again in this car...and that really reminds me that I do love driving it. Just not in the winter anymore. No more of that.

[MP81]

Saturday I got started on the install. Pulled out the rear deck and removed the stock rear speakers:





A/D/S 5.25"s Versus stock 6x9s







Empty rear deck:



A/D/S speakers ready to go in!



---


Had to stop on Saturday due to time constraints, so I finished up the install tonight:






All back together!



Crossovers zip-tied up




The sound, to say the least, is incredible. So clean. So clear - the perfect match to my A/D/S front components. Can't wait to get my JLs back in the trunk. And eventually, an actual head unit, and the 8-channel A/D/S amp.


Also, something I found out today - these rear speakers are bi-wireable or bi-ampable...pretty awesome!

[meissen]

nice