Everything is back together and the tranny is refilled with fresh fluid (almost 5 liters of it). I took it for a five mile run around the city and everything (with two exceptions) checked out. The first exception is that I drastically need to replace the 100% water coolant non-mixture with a refreshing 50/50 mix of coolant and water… water was boiling, but it was a short ride, so no worries. The other exception is that I think the shift position sensor (or somesuch) is dorked up. Here’s the scenerio…
I drive the car, stop, put it in park (confirming that it’s in park and not in any other gear). I shut the car off and pull the key. When I put the key back in and turn on the ignition, the gearshift indicator says it’s in Neutral and it refuses to start. I turn the key off (leaving it in… not taking the key out). I shift through all the gears going from Park to 1st and back to Park. Then the car starts without issue… the gearshift indicator says the car is perpetually in Drive or it says it’s in all gears. Probably not the best situation. I gotta give the guy at Autosports one more call and ask him if that’s the issue. If so, guess I’ll have to get a new sensor (or whatever).
The good news is that there is no longer increasing amounts of funk in the coolant and the tranny seems to be behaving… at least for now.
Consider yourself reminded. If you are “one of the few” (you know who you are), here’s another reminder of the Eastowners Party on June 16th. Please bring your party hats. Click here for the official invite in PDF format. If you’d like to add this event to your Google Calendar, click the following image:
So, this past week has gone by in a blur and I have no idea how we got to the end of April. Last week Tues, Wed., and Thurs. mornings were spent at the YMCA. Tuesday afternoon I dropped Clare off at her friends house around the corner (well, my friend too) for a playdate while I went to go get my hair cut and dyed for the first time. It’s not entirely what I had in mind…but it’s nice none the less. She did an extremely low maintance dye job with what are called peak-a-boo’s to help hide my grey’s and give me some texture. The cut is pretty much the same, although I am thinking I may want to go shorter with it. I have no idea what to do with my hair! I’ve had like 10 different styles in the past year and a half or so, and most I have liked….but it’s not the perfect cut that I love. Thursday night was Hot Tub Night with the MOMS Club Gals….very relaxing and it was a fun time. Friday morning we had a MOMS Club party in the morning, and then in the afternoon Allison came over to babysit. I got an iced coffe at Beaners and sat in the sun for a few hours reading my book. Afterwards I headed over to G.B Russo’s for some wine and other goodies. I thought I was doing really good, but ended up dropping some cash on only 1 bag of things. But I got some good pasta sauce and some yummy wines. On Saturday we went all over town doing errands to get Brad’s car fixed, and some leisurely strolling through River Town Mall. Sunday was spent in my PJ’s….they way I like it! I read some, caught up on “Days of Our Lives”, and then I had to run over to feed a friends cats. I’m cat/house sitting this week for a friend….and it’s the easiest cash I’ve ever earned! Her cats are rather humerous too….very affectionate and wanting attention. Today we did our MOMS Club meeting, ran over to take care of the cats, and spent the afternoon home doing nothing.
On an important note! My Uncle Dan passed an e-mail on to me about a wonderful co-worker of his that is doing the 3 day walk for Breast Cancer this August in MI. She is walking in honor of her grandmother, and in memory of my grandmother Clara Morden. As most of you know, she lost her battle to cancer about 7 years ago. She was a very special lady, and faught cancer for a long time. So special to me in fact that our daughter, Clare, is named after her. Anyway, this gal is taking pledges in hopes of reaching the $3000 mark for her walk. If your interested in donating please go to her donation site and do so: http://www.the3day.org/Michigan06/jriess. It’s fully tax-deductable, and you can donate as little or as much as you want. This will be meaningful for so many people beyond her. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death for all women, and the leading cause of death in women between the ages of 40 and 55. Both its cause and the means for its cure remain undiscovered. Currently, one million women in the U.S. have the disease and probably won
We made Sushi at home tonight (above is an actual picture of our actual homemade sushi). It was a messy affair, but it turned out well. Thanks to Beeko for the sushi rice recipe!
I got out this morning and got the transmission cooler changed before it started to rain. Sorry there aren’t any pictures, but it was the threat of rain kept the camera inside. Besides, it only took me about 25 minutes to change it. Now I have to drain and fill the tranny and do a final flush and fill of the cooling system. Hopefully, the weather will allow me to get this done early this week. Should have done it yesterday, but I had to buy a bunch of stuff and by the time we got home, there wasn’t any time before dinner (see previous blog entry).
Both sides (the coolant and tranmission) of the cooler was full of the creamy tan muck that you’ve by now seen plenty of pictures of. The interesting bit is that the cooler I have has a plastic sleeve inside where the banjo bolts go in, the one I got from Autosports is all metal (and a slightly different shape). It bolted right in with no issues, so I think it’s going to be ok.
Maybe it’ll clear up later in the day and I’ll get back out there.
Today was a -busy- day. We started out about 9 this morning for some coffee and baked goods at the Wealthy Street Bakery… mmm… Char had a “Townie”, which is basically an elephant ear rolled into the shape of a muffin. Neat and good! I had a scone and about half of an almond bearclaw. Clare ate almost an entire cinnamon roll. After the Bakery, we stopped into Art of the Table, a neat shop next to the bakery that sells all sort of things (including mixed 6 packs of all sorts of oddball beers from around the world). I think we ended up with a bottle of wine and a bottle of sparkling hard cider from Black Star Farms.
After this, I needed to make a trip to get some tools to work on my car. First on our stops was Harbor Freight. I picked up some jack stands, some torx sockets and a metric allen wrench set. I really needed allen sockets, but they were out. $10 for the set wasn’t bad anyway. While I was in Harbor Freight, Char and Clare spent some quality time next door at Big Lots. Char picked some lawn edging for the little project out front and some baskets to organize our spices.
After this little diversion, it was off to Sears to price floor jacks. I ended up getting a 3 ton model on sale for $70. Sears actually had a better price than Harbor Freight on jacks (and a better warranty). They even had a few models that were cheaper, but the one I got looked more sturdy that the cheaper models. I also picked up 4 sizes of allen sockets (wasn’t sure which one I needed) and a socket extension set. All things I need to fix the veedub. It’s a little hard to drop the tranmission pan without getting the car up in the air. I passed on the creeper, but I’ll probably pick one up soon. I’ve spent enough on tools for at least a month. There goes my music budget… hehe.
We headed back into the mall after loading this haul in the car and spent some time walking, talking, and shopping. We picked up a few tidbits of sale items at the Disney store and stopped to let Clare play at the play area. Then we dropped into KB Toys to browse around. We got Clare a Tinkerbell poster for her room.
Then we headed to one of the sporting goods stores and got Clare a soccer ball. Her uncle Dan would be proud… it’s an Adidas ball. 
This’ll probably get me off of my fat ass this summer and move around a bit.
After chilling at home for a couple of hours, we headed to Qdoba for dinner and then to Meijer for supplies for tomorrow’s dinner. We’re planning home-made Sushi. We’ll let you know how it goes.
And now we’re home and watching TV. Tomorrow… weather permitting, the car is on my short list.
So, yesterday was the usual Yoga/Pilates for me in the AM, while Clare was in her Jump Start dance class with Miss Linda. She LOVES the class so much we are having a hard time giving it up. As a matter of fact we are doing it again along with the Tumbling Bugs. It gets me to the YMCA guaranteed 2 days a week, and the 3rd is usually Yoga on Tuesdays. I am trying to do some cardio mixed in, but failed yesterday due to the fact that I forgot to eat breakfast and was feeling woosey after Yoga/Pilates. It all worked out in the end though. Brad came home in the afternoon so we could head to Zeeland to the Auto Sports place. He left there a very happy man…see his blog for more detail, as I know very little about cars! He had an idea to go to the beach, so we started driving around Holland and found the State Park sign. We followed it, and were just about to give up when we saw the actual state park! So, we go there and it was an awesome day to walk on the beach. Clare was in heaven digging in the sand. We tried to get her to at least put her toes in the water, but she was afraid. I kinda understood after I took my sunglasses off and realized it was extremely hazy and the lake was very glass-like with little to no waves. Just as we decided to leave her and I ran forward and she was able to get her piggies wet, and then she loved it so much she didn’t want to leave. We walked a little ways down the pier (only to where the railing ended) and we saw a Mallard duck along with a couple of boats. We totally forgot the camera and wished we would have brought it, as clare was on her belly making sand angels in the sand. It was so cute that I think we’ll have to go back and do it again. Of course we will have to go back, becasue Clare wants to go back every day if we could. So, I think next time we go we will bring $24 and get a season pass for the year to any state park. All you have to do is go 4 times and it has payed for itself! Then we drove back to GR in search of something to eat, and ended up at El Arreiro (not sure on the spelling, but close to that). It’s Clare’s all time favorite place, and it was a reward for being so good. Then I realized I had Moms Night Out with my MOMS Club friends, so we came home and I grabbed my stuff and headed down to Byron Center for some chocolate fondue and hot tubbing with 4 other gals. It was an awesome night to go hot tubbing, and we finished off about 3 bottles of wine in the process. Needless to say I think I got to bed at Midnight or so….so it was a good time! Brad was asleep on the couch of course with The Cosby Show on….I think he fell asleep while watching a tivo’d show. Today Clare and I are off to a MOMS Club party for lunch and and egg hunt, and then this afternoon my babysitter comes over. Another busy day around here, and this weekend with any hopes Brad will get his car driving again!
So I paid a visit to the cats at Autosports Unlimited. I have only one thing to say about them. If you own a Euro car and live anywhere on the west side of Michigan, please PLEASE give these guys some business! They did me soooo right. I got the cooler, a new filter, some oil, and a quick lesson on Veedub AT’s… all just for making the trip. Curt over there is a great guy. I will be returning very soon to buy some other things for the Audi (the CD Changer needs replacement). So this weekend, I’ll be replacing the cooler and flushing out the tranny and coolant system.
I’ll post pics as I work on it.
A new track by the mid-nineties dark metal band, Tool, has been leaked to the masses and dare I say… it sounds really good. I’m excited about this album. It is certainly the first disc I’ve been excited about in quite a while. I’ve sort of moved on from metal in general, but always have had a soft spot for Tool because they are such damned fine musicians. Here is a link, in case you’re interested. There is a link to an MP3 in the comments somewhere.
Umm… yeah, so I talked to Curt from Autosports again. This time, telling him what I found. I felt a bit like a jackass because I didn’t understand how the cooler worked, but he enlightened me into the ways of cooling a VW AT and now I am wiser than I was when I started. Apparently, there is a cooler on top of the tranny. If you look at the following picture, it’s the pill shaped thing with a couple of bolts in it. The coolant hooks up there. Transmission fluid flows up from the tranny into this cooler where coolant comes from the cooling system. This is, according to Curt, the only place where the two could possible mix. Sounds reasonable to me. Curt offered to give me a cooler to fix my problem, so I’m going to head over to Zealand sometime this week and pick it up. He also offered to give me a quick tour around the VW transmission. That’s cool.
Here’s the car up on stilts. It seems I’ve collected the needed tools to get a car up in the air safely.
This is what is under that mysterious maintenance-free tranny pan. Notice that I still hadn’t removed the filter seal, but the filter is removed and I’ve tried to clean up most of the mess.
Here is the nastiness that was in that mysterious maintenance-free tranny pan. You can see the old filter discarded in the yellow drain pan in absolute disgust. This was a messy messy job, but I did get it done; as a matter of fact, much faster than I expected.
