A Gambler 500 CR-V and Whatever Else Shows Up

I put a low maximum bid on this in the morning, then got called out on a flight. No key and possibly frame damage, but a clear title. I figured that under $1,000 I can deal with the consequences of yet another car.

My gray/green Prius has been sitting for a while in need of a couple battery cells and interior trim. Son in law can use a headlight and a good wheel & tire (has a scraped, but useable one. The Cyberjunk Prius rear hatch glass had one layer shatter when I was cleaning it (relieving stress from the rear end collision). The glass is held in my the lower layer of laminate, but I'll be happier with a new hatch.   So, either green/gray part out and fix red, or red part out and fix green/gray.

In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :

The silver 2000 has my interest.  Any issues you know of that would preclude a 1000 mile drive home?  HVAC all working now?  Where in OK are you and any issues holding until early Dec with payment before?  

In reply to Sonic :

I have only put about 100 miles on it since I registered it. 1000 miles should be a pleasure, but I'm going to try to get another 100 or more miles on it in the next few days, then give everything a good check. The tires are dated 2022 - Michelin PS all season 4. Brakes show wear, but look about 40% life left on the pads. All drivetrain components look good, but I want a look at the oil and filter and check for any leaks after I get more miles (because 986 owners look at their oil filters). Windows & top operate as they should.

I'm in northeast Ok about mid-way between TUL and XNA airports.

HVAC is all good.

My time is booked solid through Thanksgiving, so early December is fine.

Sounds good.  I'll know by the end of the weekend if this can work or not and be in touch either way.  

In reply to Sonic :

Xlnt. I don't plan to list it for sale anywhere until after Thanksgiving. Just put it here first to give GRMers a chance and save me the hassle of FB Marketplace.

I drove the Prius to work today, planning to install the lift kit. I forgot to grab my impact wrench, so not fully motivated for that and started doing some CAD work on the front.

I'm planning to cut a flat sheet of scrap door or hood material then bend the reverse for each side. Steel folds easily. Aluminum usually needs to be annealed. Not sure which I'll use yet.

Message sent through the forum link, please let me know if it didn't come through, abbottcd at the gmails.  Let's do this. 

Sonic said:

Message sent through the forum link, please let me know if it didn't come through, abbottcd at the gmails.  Let's do this. 

Got it. Reply sent.

Sale of the 2000 Boxster S is pending.

Driving the Prius around it looked like my mpg went down significantly. Actually no; It's my miles per rev:

Installed the 40mm lift kit today. All good except two of the bolts that were supplied for the rear had the wrong thread. Easy to replace. I found that one of the inner CV shaft boots is torn. I'll probably take care of that next weekend.

In other news, the red Prius arrived today and the Silver 2000 Boxster S is officially sold to Sonic.

What am I doing? I wanted to have a few less cars and somehow I got more. No more casually watching auctions or looking for cool stuff on Marketplace for a while. Time to get organized and focused again.

Garage: Never finishing the engine swap on the Frog and jumping from car to car and working on three different projects in a day has made my garage an unusable space for a while. I have two Boxster engines that I need to haul away for scrap rather than trying to salvage every part that can be re-used, plus a good-ish 2.7L engine that is going to need some of the parts I already have. Walking around those (and three transmissions) every time I go to the toolbox is getting old. I need to load up and haul a trailer of junk metal to the recycler next week.

Cars:

Right now I have cars parked on the grass. I hate that. The silver 2000 Boxster S will go to it's new home in a week. I have two cars that are going to go as soon as I part them and one that I'm going to take to the Gambler 500 Key Swap. I'll be bringing a car home from the Key Swap, but the plan is to find a friend interested in 'Gambling' and sell it to them for $500. Parts cars are the terrible 1999 Boxster and one of the Prii.

Let's not count how many cars I have right now, but rather look at why I have them. Daily and General use, RallyX, Gambler 500, Tow Pig, and because I want it.

Daily use cars are the Acty, Mrs AAZCD's Element and a Boxster or two. RallyX is the 'Frog' and 'Parts Car Porsche' as back-up. Gambler 500 is the Xbox and the lifted Prius - probably getting named 'CiberTruk' or 'PsyberTruk'. Tow Pig is the TDI Touareg with the Vandura as back-up (and portable parts storage shed). "Because I want it" are three projects: Milburn Fiero (If I ever do go back to the Challenge, this will be the car.), Black '73 Porsche 914, and 1981 VW Scirocco. I don't need any more cool projects for quite a while.

The Prius Plan

Right now, I'm on paper for owning four. I need to officially transfer the '07 Touring Prius to my daughter and son in law who have had it for a year or more. The red one '07 is a nicer car than the silver-green '05, so I'm pretty sure that is the one that I'll save. The lifted Prius, formerly Gold, runs and drives well, but needs a few things.

Red: Needs a key and transponder module, left side inner tie rod, left headlight and fender, right tail light, front bumper cover, and a heat storage tank reservoir. Silver-green has all of that. I'm not sure that I really have use for this car after repairs, but it can be a decent car and should be fixed. Probably has about 300K miles on it, but doesn't show it.

Silver-green: Was salvage & repair from a hard left front collision. It was my son in law's daily commuter for a while and slowly gathered some issues. Now it has a pair of bad cells in the HV battery, a bad strut, bad window regulator, broken trim pieces and wear. It runs and drives still, but has a significant tapping sound from the engine. Until I had a good look at Red, I had planned to repair it. Red can be a better car. After I pull all the parts I need, I can give the rest to my son in law to scrap or hold onto if he needs parts for 'his' '07.

The lifted Prius: This was intended to be my car for the Key Swap, but the more work I did on it, the more I wanted to keep it. With a few repairs, it could even serve as an odd-looking daily. Parts from the silver-green car: left rear tail light, right CV shaft, rear hatch, catalytic converter and O2 sensors.

I'm liking the Cyber Prius more and more every picture!

Working on the red Prius. I pulled the transponder module out of gray-green and plugged it into red. The only issue I had removing the dash was the trim pieces around the vents cracking. The plastic just crumbled in a few areas as I pried it off. With module plugged in to red, I powered up. The dash lights all came on normally, but no "Ready". I tired charging up the 12V battery some more, reading codes, and looking for bad fuses or things that weren't connected right.

Eventually I went into diagnostics on DR Prius and came up with a B2799 Error Code. That led me to 'Reprogram immobilizer after HV ECU replaced'. I won't quote it all here, but basically involves  jumping pins 5 and 13 on the OBD Port and waiting 30 minutes for the car to run a reprogram. There was also a warning that if you turn it on and off over 20 times "consecutively" the transponder module will go into pemanant lock-out. I may or may not have done that. Who counts on-offs and what exactly constitutes "consecutively"?  Anyway, I now know how to turn on the secret diagnostic menu:

I can probably really get into some trouble randomly poking around in that. Anyway, I'm on the 30 minute timer now hoping that I get a "Ready" when the timer gets to zero.

Timer went off shortly after posting. To my surprise, I got a Ready and the car is running well now and charging the HV battery.

I have a few new parts, including the headlight and tie rod coming later this week from Rock Auto. Not that I *need* another car, but I'm pretty excited and love learning new stuff like this.

Are you saying that to get the car running you pulled these paired parts from one car to another car?  

Then, after changing those you ran the Pin 5 & 13 for nearly 30 minutes?

In reply to John Welsh :

Not quite. I think that the part that the key plugs into is just an illuminated socket, not any significant electronic function. The part that needs to be transferred along with the key is the "ECU Immobilizer" module from behind the passenger side airbag.

Here's a video for that:

After you install the module and get your electronics all plugged back in:

Put a jumper from pin 4 or 5 to pin 13 of the OBD2 Port.

Power up the car as you would to start it.

Do not touch anything else in the car and wait for thirty minutes. Some dash lights should be blinking the whole time - VSC etc. Diagnostics will display on the center screen.

After 30 minutes, turn the power switch off.

Remove the jumper.

It should now show "Ready" when you power the car back up.

Here's the video that I followed the procedure from: https://youtu.be/724kLMiRmpg?si=iYucI6vf6T8hz-ps *Not a Prius, and his connector is upside down, but it worked.

Afterward, I used DR Prius > Special Features >'Clear Battery Errors' to clear the B2799 code. The car runs normally now except for smart key which I think I need to Chicken Dance for.  ...another day.

In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :

Wow.  Great info!  My latest Prius is w/o key and I'm forging new ground for myself.  Thanks for leading the way!  

Indy-Guy sent me fob and slot because that is what I asked for thinking that is what I needed.  Now I see I need the matched box from behind the passenger airbag also.  

In reply to John Welsh :

Brrrrrr, it's cold out there tonight.  But I'm bundling up and about to head out and pull it.

Geez. Youre the man!

That silver Prius is looking a lot like a baby Cyber Truck!

Using two channel lock pliers, I bent the metal that the fender bolts onto back in shape and sprayed some primer where the paint had flaked. For now I have the fender and front bumper cover held on with about half of the fasteners to make sure it all fits well.

My son in law may be able to bring the car or parts of it to the shop where he works and get them a nice professional coat of red. If there's any issues with doing it there, I may drive it for a while with the mixed colors until I catch up on other projects and have a 'paint day'.

The silver Boxster gets picked up by Sonic at the Tulsa Airport on Saturday. It's ready to go now, but I'll give it a good check on Friday to make sure it looks good for a multi-day drive to PA.

Last year we had the first annual Gambler 500 Key Swap. Only a few people were brave enough to show up and we figured out what to do as we went through it. This year it seems like it's going to be more popular and diverse. Key Swap G500 Revenge of the Grinch

If you live within a couple hour drive of Ardmore, Ok and have a roadworthy car with a clear title that you'd like to trade for someone else's problem, you have about a week left to get ready.

We don't know what cars are actually going to show up, but I got a Fuaxrrari last year. Here's some that may show up:

Not sure if the School Bus is likely to show or if he's just threatening.

Saturday I met Sonic and Mrs Sonic at TUL and handed over the keys. It sounds like they have an excellent adventure planned.

Today I did a Toy Run with ADV bike riders and Overlanders. None of my Gambler 500 friends made it. I had fun cruising along with some lifted LX470s and a Chevy truck.

I am still waiting for new struts for the red Prius, but it drives well enough to get the registration done.

I insured it and drove to the Tag Agency. There was nobody waiting. The minute I walked in the door the manager said, "What can we do for you today Jonathan?" I guess they all know me at this point.

All was going well until she found out that even though the title is clear and from Progressive Insurance as the previous owner, her computer showed a lien. I had no way to find out the lien info, so she wrote down what she had and handed it to me. It was from Citizens Bank in RI and had an owner's name that didn't match any paperwork that I had found. Crap.

I called Citizens, explained the situation and asked if I can get a copy of a lien release. Alexa at Customer Service said that they can't give that or any information to a third party. I again explained that I am the owner, with a clear title and a car that I have repaired. Alexa said there was nothing that she or the bank could do for me and suggested that I call the dealer that I bought the car from.

I called my local COPART lot. Customer Service said that all they could verify was that the car didn't have any liens in Arkansas. She suggested I call the bank and ask for a 'Statement of no Interest' instead of a lien release, saying that it's the same form, but somehow calling it by a different name invokes different magic. Additionally she took all my account info and said that she would bring it to her manager's attention to see what could be done.

I called Citizens back, gave 'Ellie' a quick summary and asked if she could send me a 'Statement of no Interest'. She said, "No problem sir, we can have that to you in 5 to 7 business days." Amazing.

I spent the rest of my car project time today taking a few parts off of the green-gray Prius.