Project: The Sky's The Limit

[BFisch06]

Got the car back exactly 4 weeks after the accident. Went to pick it up and the rear decklid was on so cock-eyed that the weatherstripping had been smashed flat and bubbled up a good 1/4 inch out of the (non-existent) panel gap. I wouldn't accept it, so they took it around back and fixed it. It must have pissed them off because they drove it through a mud puddle fast enough to cake the inside of my front brake cooling ducts with mud. :evil: I signed over my check from Nationwide and paid my share for the passenger fender. The accident alone cost $4700 - a far cry past the $3300 Nationwide cut me a check for. That was already settled ahead of time - I was just surprised at the final cost. When they pulled it back around the guy helping me said "huh, there's a check engine light - I'll clear that for you. It's probably just because it's been sitting for a while". In hindsight that was a red flag and I should have looked up the code right then and there. I did, however, ask for the code before he cleared it. It was P0480.

A coworker drove the Sky to Enterprise while I drove the rental. Dropoff was easy and I got in to drive the Sky back to the office. Check engine light came back on. Not even a mile down the street from Enterprise the Sky overheated. I took some back roads to keep air moving over the radiator, and temps dropped into an acceptable (albeit high) range. Once back at the office, I looked up the CEL code - "cooling fan circuit". Well, that explained the overheating problem. Turns out the fuse was blown - a known issue on the kappa's when the battery is jumped. I let it sit for a while and then drove it to a parts store to get a replacement fuse. It's time for a coolant flush (and I'll probably ditch the DexCool anyway) so I just put from distilled water in for now.

Over the Labor Day weekend I put on new parts: Brake rotors and pads as well as a rear sway bar. The bar is from the Z0K "clubsport" package offered on the Solstices. The Z0K package contained sway bars, springs, and a beefed-up differential carrier. Per SCCA Stock/Street rules, I can only change 1 bar, but most autocrossers agree the stock FE3 front bar combined with the Z0K rear is the way to go. I have yet to really push the car, but it should all but eliminate the understeer I had before. I went with standard rotors and Hawk pads - HPS front, HP+ rear. Again, recommended by Kappa autocrossers to shift the brake balance to the rear.

Contrary to most other members here, I have little wrenching experience. When I worked for GM I wasn't allowed to touch tools per UAW agreements. Anyway, everything went fairly well, but took longer than I expected. The rotors were much more difficult to remove than I thought they would be and I ended up having to rent the tool to reset the rear caliper pistons (the passenger-side worked fine with needle-nose pliers, but not the driver-side). In addition, I ended up having to drop the exhaust to swap the sway bar. Wasn't prepared for that, but the experience was good to have.

While I had the car up on stands I found the driver side fender was missing a bolt connecting the plastic cover to the bottom of the fender. In addition, the hood vents have bubbled up in the center. Guess I'll have to find time to take it back to the shop and get everything fixed up. Disappointed it took three weeks and $4700 but all these details fell by the wayside. On a positive note, the paint looks great.

The brakes are a huge improvement over the stock ones, and I can feel a small difference in handling, but this weekend's autocross event should give me a chance to explore the new sway bar. :mrgreen:

I didn't get too many pictures during the weekend. It rained part of Saturday, and we (Rachel helped) got the exhaust re-hung about 9:00 PM. Once we got going the DSLR was put in the back of the garage away from the rain and I just kinda forgot about pictures.

I don't think I've ever posted a picture with the top up:


Wifey changed the oil on the HHR while I worked on the Sky. Ready to get to work:


Passenger side with a new fender and blended paint. Also: new stubby antenna.


New parts: rear rotor and sway bar


Letting the brakes cool down after following Hawk's bed-in procedure: