Used my car as a mini-pickup truck again. This is called a symbiotic relationship. The car is bringing home a portable A/C unit which will keep the garage cool & dehumidified this Summer. Plus it'll make it bearable to work on the car even when it's 95F and humid outside.

 

BTW when buying one of these portable A/C units be sure to get one that routes the condensation back into the exhaust outlet (which is routed outside). If you get one with a simple "drip-hose" and it's really humid out it'll produce about 6 gallons of water per day. Besides the hassle of emptying the water bucket, Heaven help you if you forget. Remember a day later and by then several gallons of H2O will be transforming your house into a swimming pool!

 

Put a sump pump in the drip bucket. Problem solved !

 

Why not a chain of buckets and sump pumps, set up correctly flooding would only happen when all the buckets were full.😜

 

I’m sure it would work!

.......years ago a bunch of guys got together over some beer and brainstormed the TVA. The same principle’s chugging along 5 generations later.

 

It's a REAL concern! The thing that makes it difficult is that the RATE at which the bucket fills with A/C condensation water is ENTIRELY DEPENDENT on the amount of humidity in the air. If I get hot, sticky, Gulf (of Mexico) air the bucket will over-top before I even wake up in the morning. And in actuality, that unit is the one I'm transferring to the garage.

 

Polished the headlight haze to like new appearance on the newest Aero Blue addition. Watched the video of the conductor plate and parking lock actuator changeout on the 722.6 automatic transmission.

 

Put my new rims and tires on. TSW Rims, Pirelli PZero 235/35/19 front, 255/30/20 rears.

 

Very nice. How does it affect the ride & handling going +1?

 

Waxed up the 04 with Chemical Guys Speed Wipe and admired my resurfaced stock wheels that look absolutely new and gorgeous. Still looking though for the crossfire emblem off the steering wheel I cracked by accident:-(

 

WD40
Just drove it around my subdivision, taking it out on the highway this week. I will give you an update after I make some speed runs.
I replaced four G Force Sports, no traction and very loud.

 

Nice looking rims & stance. It will be interesting to see you feedback on ride & handling.

Later,

 

Consider buying a Crossfire Driver-Side Airbag. Don't need to match the color (unless you want to swap out the airbag) and transfer the emblem to your car. (Note: If you do plan to swap out the airbags, make sure you buy one from the same series as your car. The 2004-2006 & 2007-2008 came from different suppliers) An airbag can be had on eBay for less than $50, if you search for it. Might be a good price for the emblem, considering it's no longer available.

 

REMEMBER, the Takata airbags may be available on ebay and other places, they are EXTREMELY DANGEROUS!


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In between rain storms yesterday, we took the coupe out for a drive. Drove a loop across Southern Greenville County that has some nice roadways. Never really got very aggressive on the route - sorta past that point in my life. Nevertheless, a very enjoyable ride. Had that "perma-grin" look when we got back home! I just love driving this car!

 

Yeah, I understand that "perm-grin" look after driving the Crossfire! And I noticed today that you go waaaaay back on this forum to 2008 or so! Congrats and thanks for sharing so much good info here. My buddy up the street got his engineering degree from Missouri-Rolla. He liked seeing you avatar or character of their mascot.

I was studying-up on replacing the steering damper and found some good info back in 2009 and saw you were posting back then: steering damper

I replaced the steering damper today. Just about the easiest thing I've ever done on the Crossfire. I'll post more details later.....

 

Catching up on what I’ve done on my 2005 Crossfire.

Back around Christmas, I added a cheapo external tire pressure monitoring system using the screw-on sensors. It’s still working great. I can’t feel any difference in tire balance and I’m not seeing any difference in tire wear. It sure is nice to see the actual pressure reading on each tire. I don’t believe I’ve had to add any air to any tire since January and I’ve checked the accuracy using several other digital tire pressure gauges.

End of January, I added a cheapo Heads Up Display. It just plugs into the OBDII port. It works surprisingly well and I was surprised at how nice it is to not look down to check speed. I liked it so much I put one on my wife’s Jeep, too.

Two weeks ago, I replaced the spark plugs. I’m at 74,000 miles. I didn’t have any records of maintenance when I purchased the car three years ago. I found the previous plugs were Autolite Platinum. I replaced them with NGK Iridium from Needswings. Also replaced original spark plug wires with Needswings Magnecor Race and Street competition spark plug wires. I can feel a difference in the pep and acceleration from the new plugs and wires. The special Mercedes bent-wrench tool for removing the original spark plug wires really helps a lot. Also, the pivoting socket that I got from Needswing makes getting to the rear spark plugs a bit easier.

Today, I replaced the steering damper. I used a Stabilus steering damper from partsgeek.com. The old steering damper looked original. But the piston was pretty firm. I could tell from the test drive that the new steering damper helped smooth out bumps like manhole covers and small potholes. Previously, I was feeling a bit of a clunk through the steering wheel.

Now, I’ve got to have a little fun with the Crossfire before the temperatures here in Austin, Texas gets too hot to drive around with the top down. Just got back from a fun drive.



One more thing: I got a notification that a wrecked 2005 Crossfire Coupe, black, showed up at a Wrench-a-Part yard near me. I’ve never gone out to wrench-a-part and was wondering if anyone could suggest some parts that I might go for. The front end, passenger side, is crumpled. So, that headlight is gone. Grill is missing, too. Wheels looks standard, in the photo. Since it’s a coupe, there aren’t any convertible top parts for me to harvest. I figure that the folks who run the yard probably know the value of certain parts. I don't expect to get something for nothing but maybe there's some rare part I should look for.

 

I'M BAAAAAAAAACK!!! Got the 1 replacement pin bushing today, opened it up carefully and went out and soldered the three new pin bushings into the 'B' connector at 2, 4, & 5. Reassembled the connector, but before I plugged it in and rode off into the sunset, I opened/inspected with a big mag glass, the rest of the small and large pin bushings in the 5 connectors of the RCM (BTW, they are officially called by MB, Pin Bushings!). After triple checking all parts and that they were back in their normal places, (and holding my breath), I cranked it over and it started right up. THEN STALLED, then started right back up again (I was ready for that, being off the battery for a while wiped the computers). So, for $18.12 and quite a lot of time, sweat, beer, worry, more beer, and a few curses followed by more beer I am BACK!

As promised, the MB part number for the LARGE pin bushings in the connectors of the RCM, is ( 003 545 26 26 ).

A follow-up to a past post! After I received the replacement NEW pin bushing today, I closely, VERY closely, inspected the assembly of it. YES, assembly of it. The crimp near the top at the point where the solder traps the wire, has a 'sealing disk' (my words) crimped into (inside) the pin bushing at that 'bulge'. This DISK caps the top of the pin of the RCM, and most likely keeps any solder (during assembly) from flowing down the 'sleeve', making it a non-issue of preventing the pin from being stopped when plugging in the connector. It also 'cups' the liquid solder allowing it to 'fill' that top portion while the wire is attached/soldered. Seeing this, it makes sense that improper assembly of the three pin bushings in that one connector in the harness jig (when manufactured), is what caused the three to fail on my car PERIOD.

IF it happened to mine, it MIGHT happen again to someone else (or has already happened) and cost a whole lot to remedy (selling the car, huge repair bill, etc, etc).


Backed out of Garage after the complete repair!


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Really love that look. I wish they had made the car stock 19’ 20’ offset especially with the SRT6 wheels. I doubt we’ll ever have anyone make replicas for our cars that are up an inch, so something like what you have is what I’ll be on the hunt for. If you don’t mind me asking, what are the width of both wheels and are you running spacers? Also are you lowered at all or using any of the camber kits? Thank you in advance.

 

The fronts are 235/35/19 +33 offset 8.5"wide. The rears are 255/30/20 +25 offset 10"wide. No spacers or camber kits. I have not lowered the car although it sits a little lower in the front because of the V8.