So 18 months ago or so we sold off the old 2001 Accent and purchased a 2008 Rio LX sedan auto. HAd 75k miles(basically new for an Alpha engine), needed tires and a timing belt/accesory belt change. Did those and she's been driving it 75 miles a day since.
About a week ago the driver's side CV axle started making noise, so I ordered one from Advance with a new seal and fluid for $80 and since it's at ~97k miles I thought I'd also change the original spark plugs. I'd noticed it took a little longer to start than it had so it's a good idea.
Tore into it tonight, got the plugs out and changed. I was expecting this car to have the OE platinum plugs. Imagine my surprise to find NGK V-power copper plugs..... with almost 100k miles on them. Numbers 1 and 4 had a gap around .085". Number 2 had a gap around .095 and number 3 was rusted and had a gap over .100. Factory gap is .033-.035. How it ran, I have no friggin clue. Hell, up until last week it was averaging over 35mpg.
Got that done, yanked the wheel apart, axle out only to find the wheel bearing is trashed. Started tearing that apart only to realize someone has been in here before. The hub is mashed, beat and scarred. Someone had no frigging clue what they were doing. so tomorrow I head to Ohreally's to pick up a new hub and bearing.
Oh well... this will make it better than it's likely been since we bought it.
You should be getting 50 mpg's after that tune up! 
Good luck!
This just reaffirms my belief that Alphas have an inherent will to run no matter what you do to them.
and it gets better...... Someone fubar'd the knuckle putting in/taking out the previous bearing. Gouged as hell and beat to death. Lovely. Good thing a new knuckle is less than a $100 shipped. Too bad it will take 3 days to get it.
Oh well... at least it will be done right this way and all new parts.
and the saga continues..... so I've been sick this week for a few days. Got the knuckle on Thursday and between potty breaks (yeah, THAT kind of sick) got the bearing and hub all pressed together. easy peasy... right?
Wrong. So I start slipping it back together. THe lower ball joint is kinda awesome in that you don't have to seperate the joint from the arm, you just pull two M12 bolts and boom... done. Pretty smart engineering for long term maintenance. Right? Wrong again... ok, not wrong, just not this time. First bolt in, second one gets 2/3 of the way in and boom. Snaps off inside the knuckle. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
So I snap off my last easy-out and say screw it and finished drilling it out. Not I need to locate a M12x1.5 tap to rethread the hole.
How the hell did a 30 minute axle swap turn into rebuilding hte left front corner and a week of work? To my credit, the center of the bolt had been broken for some time (rusted) and only the outer edge was a fresh break. I'm not sure if it was stressed before, or just a bad casting. Who knows at this point.
sO... a minor continuation. Lasted for a few weeks. Different noise popping up and an issue under cornering where you get a huge caster change mid corner. Upper strut mount on the same side os done for. Literally little balls from the bearing sticking out. Not sure what they hit... but it likely didn't move much from the looks of things.
So.... since we're now sitting at 100k miles..... new struts, mounts, rear shocks, mounts, lower ball joints and new H&R springs. F-it.... this thing WILL be new when I get done. I think the only thing left on the left front corner NOT new when this is over will be the lower control arm and it has been replaced because it had the replacement sticker from Hyundai at a point not long ago on the under side.
The upside is it will ride better and actually not look (as) silly.
EDIT: as a good sign, fuel economy has gone way up (ok, 3mpg so not "way" up) and the car starts and runs smoother. Even with me driving the crap out of it it's still averaging 34mpg. Her driving is 38 both up from 31 and 35 respectively.
That's about the same mpg I got over the life of my accent. Most I ever got was 41 mpg hypermiling the hell out of it for a week just to see. (Coast in neutral to every stop and every opportunity, upshift 2500rpm, no ac, keep speed down.)
so I got it together today. Had a small issue with the new axle I put in last month. car looks and drives MUCH better now.
In reply to Bobzilla:
Time for a celebratory dance!
Heres the aftermath 2 days later:
here's the before/after:
Ride is 10000000000% better, smoother and less sucky. Handling went from painful to entertaining. All that is left is some 15x7.5's with some 205's and a manual trans. Neither of which is happening. But she'll be happy.
failboat wrote:
That's about the same mpg I got over the life of my accent. Most I ever got was 41 mpg hypermiling the hell out of it for a week just to see. (Coast in neutral to every stop and every opportunity, upshift 2500rpm, no ac, keep speed down.)
Coasting in neutral actually uses more gas than staying in gear in alot of cars. The engine uses enough gas to idle while in neutral. In gear and jsut decelerating the engine uses no gas.
Just a little friendly threadjack.
Continue on with the Korean Car goodness!
Rob R.
wvumtnbkr wrote:
failboat wrote:
That's about the same mpg I got over the life of my accent. Most I ever got was 41 mpg hypermiling the hell out of it for a week just to see. (Coast in neutral to every stop and every opportunity, upshift 2500rpm, no ac, keep speed down.)
Coasting in neutral actually uses more gas than staying in gear in alot of cars. The engine uses enough gas to idle while in neutral. In gear and jsut decelerating the engine uses no gas.
Just a little friendly threadjack.
Continue on with the Korean Car goodness!
Rob R.
In a manual trans car, above 2000rpms that is true. Coasting below 2000rpms, or with an auto the engine must continue to run on it's own.
This car has really grown on me. It's actually quieter than the newer and nicer Forte I have in regards to road noise. Plus, we (wife and I) are getting older and more prone to breakage so having a second automatic that gets better than 20mpg is a nice thing to have I think. If it had some real tires on it, I would probably truly like it as a fun commuter. But these 185/65/14's are just TERRIBLE for onramp fun times. They squeal like hell, have no grip and are good for one thing: fuel economy.
and we're back..... got the rear upper shock mounts and went out to install. Popped them in, took about 5 minutes or so and decided to rotate the right rear tire to the front. Get that done and decided to check the left front to make sure everything was good.... and it's loose. WHAT???!!?!?!? Pull the wheel, can feel movement. There's one piece I have not changed on that corner... the lower ball joint. Guess what I'm buying today and installing tonight? Jeebus.... This firmly supports my theory someone hit something immovable in this corner before we purchased it. Once I started replacing things it all went to E36 M3, all on that corner!
wvumtnbkr wrote:
failboat wrote:
That's about the same mpg I got over the life of my accent. Most I ever got was 41 mpg hypermiling the hell out of it for a week just to see. (Coast in neutral to every stop and every opportunity, upshift 2500rpm, no ac, keep speed down.)
Coasting in neutral actually uses more gas than staying in gear in alot of cars. The engine uses enough gas to idle while in neutral. In gear and jsut decelerating the engine uses no gas.
Just a little friendly threadjack.
Continue on with the Korean Car goodness!
Rob R.
I had a Scangauge II in the car. Coasting in gear in my manual trans accent caused it to run in open loop mode, which used more gas than running in closed loop mode at idle, according to the mpg gauges. And the odometer telling me I got over 400 miles on that particular tank of gas.
I did run a week in open loop mode once because I installed a header just long enough to decide I didnt want to deal with the hassle of tricking the car into getting the right O2 readings. 25-27 mpg. And a car that smelled like gas all the time.
ok, got the ball joint in, aligned and recentered the steering wheel. YAY! IT'S DONE! for now. next up is a much needed trans fluid and filter change.
LITTLE update on this little crapcan. Just clicked over 120k miles. Need to replace the right front LCA because the bushingis torn from the arm. Decided to take it to Chicago to leave at the airport for over a week... ran 80mph with the AC on up and back... averaged 37.7mpg on that tank. Damn thing is a tank.
ok, So the car started pushing hard lately and the left front tire was wearing hte inside edge hard. So I yanked out the plates and it was toed out almost 3/4". Pulled the toe back in and it drives great again. Question is.... how did this happen? The outter tie rod and the lock nut were both tight on both sides. I had replaced the inner and outer TR, was hte inner just not tight and with time it tightened itself? No clue. I know that 2 months ago it was dead on.
I haven't driven this car in a while. Sadly, right now it's the best handling, possibly the fastest car in the fleet right now. But at least the little booger can turn. Holy hell it handles well. If the auto-tragic wasn't so soul sucking this could be a fun little DD. But it is... so just don't use the brakes and let the suspension keep you going fast.
Also... had to finally change the front pads again. 136k miles on the odo, the rotors were original, still had the pink paint marker across the rotor screws. 2 sets of pads in that time. Rear drums should last through this set of pads to the 180-190k mile mark.
Such a good little dependable beater.
Every time I get back in this car (this time, 2 weeks of 4wd GMT800 Tahoe), I forget how go-karty it feels. Zero power, all the handling. Never Lift. Ever.
Started the thinkings again.... There's a nice 5-spd Rio with a solid body for $1200. There's a crashed Forte 2.4/6-spd for $1200. 160whp/tq, 2300lbs, miata/civic wheel/tires, understressed engine and trans..... Someone needs to build this for One Lap. I've been told by the finance manager no more projects.
Also, looks like this will become my winter beater as the wife is taking back her truck.
well crap. I have to spend money on it again. 138k and it needs a right front wheel bearing and it's time for timing belt #2. From my last experience with this thing, I made it easier on myself and ordered the hub and knuckle at the same time. Then I can just put it together and install on the car and toss the old one. $90 for all of it on Rock Auto plus shipping. All in, with t-belt, accessory belts, tensioner and ball joint $202 shipped.
Fun fact, with the ball joint and complete knuckle this literally makes the entire front suspesnion "new". Car's had a pretty rough life... it was an Avis rental car before the previous owners beat it.
Why did I read that as 'wife beater edition' and wonder at strange american colloguisms :)
Sounds a bit like my 98 hyundai accent evertime something breaks it is because it is the original 300,000 km old part....
Like the front wheel bearings blued with age but happy with new grease these last 50000km...
Colloquialisms...
Auto correct can't spell..
I had to do the math.... it's almost 225k km's for you weirdo's.
Also, it used 1 quart of oil in 8300 miles. Not bad. Better than her 2000 Accent. Oil analysis came back about right. Less wear than before, base number depleted. Basically, perfect.
