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Hi ladies and gentlemen, introducing the Cockroach
New Member IntroductionsWelcome new members !!
This is the place to post a new thread and introduce yourself and tell us a little about yourself and what model Crossfire you just bought or are looking to buy.
Threads created for anything other than introductions are subject to be moved to the appropriate section in the forum for the topic being posted.
Hi ladies and gentlemen, introducing the Cockroach
Hello everyone!!
I'm Red, from Spain (Europe), and since two years ago, I'm the proudly owner of the Cockroach: The Cockroach in it's natural habitat, the gas station
a manual, N/A black CrossFire with 112k miles that I bought as a bargain, waaay cheaper than it's average used selling price here in Spain, due to many technical problems, some of them have been solved thanks to this marvelous forum, of which I've been a silent member since I was looking for buying this car.
Indeed I bought it as my particular "mechanic school", because I always wanted to learn the basics for self doing the maintenance on my other daily cars, so I was ok with some of its tech problems.
I named it after the song "La Cucaracha", because it refuses to walk properly, even if I sometimes call it the Cricket, bc all the funny little sounds and squeaks it sometimes do. A very good car, poorly maintained all along it's life, till I adopted it.
So far, I've changed the BCM (when I bought it, neither the windows and wing worked, even with a freshly new battery), revised the RCM, cleaned and checked a completely obliterated EGR valve, flushed coolant, changed oil and filter, air filters and cabin too, manual tranny oil and diff oil, checked for water in central locking pump, a spark plugs cable and coil pack, checked, cleaned and regapped spark plugs, bought a new CPS (haven't installed yet), and of course, sealed the crankcase vents, changed the cracking tubes, and changed valve cover seals (left one started to drip oil again over the manifold within two months , even if I rechecked the torque of all bolts).
I'll open a post later about a problem with the radiator and a few questions, but felt I must firstly pass by here and introduce both myself and the black bug, and saying a BIG THANK YOU to everyone that took the effort to write down DIYs, tutorials, various experiments or experiences doing this or that, and valuable sources like service manuals, cross reference books and so on. Without all your info I wouldn't ever been capable of doing all this just guessing by myself.
Even when I couldn't drive it for a long trip due to some health problems, I experienced a grinevery time I've drove it, when cornering in the highway or just launching off a stop light. That feeling, and the fact that even being so small, it has plenty of space in the trunk for a weekend trip, make it worthy of all the effort and time expended learning how to care for it!
So, enough text for writing a blog. Just wanted to say hello!!
P.S.: sorry for the bad English, it's not my mother language
Hi ladies and gentlemen, introducing the Cockroach
), and of course, sealed the crankcase vents, changed the cracking tubes, and changed valve cover seals (left one started to drip oil again over the manifold within two months 
, even if I rechecked the torque of all bolts).
every time I've drove it, when cornering in the highway or just launching off a stop light. That feeling, and the fact that even being so small, it has plenty of space in the trunk for a weekend trip
, make it worthy of all the effort and time expended learning how to care for it!
