Oil Caps, Connectors and Lug Nuts

Working on cars teaches you things, and recently the Z has handed down several important lessons for me. Luckily, none of them caused a critical failure or accident, but all of them could have, or at a minimum cost me time or money (or both). 

At the end of August, I invited my friend Juan to work on his Z (350Z) in my drive way while I worked on mine. I jacked it up and took off front rims to clean them up well after my track day. I was helping Juan with his install, and working on mine and got a little distracted. I didn't torque down my lug nuts. When did I find out? LUCKILY... I did a quick trip to Target, and one the way back my steering wheel was shaking bad... and it got worse as I got close to home. I decided to pull over instead of finish the drive and... WHOA. Driver side wheel was nearly off, it was missing TWO lugs (out of four) and the passenger side was missing one. I was close enough I jogged home, grabbed my tools and jack and D dropped me off at the car. Luckily I had found my extra set of lugs (Blog on my lugs issue before: Garage Lessons). I am so lucky one of the wheels didn't fly off... could of caused major damage. 

In September I had another track night up at Gingerman Raceway. It was my birthday week, and with lots of work and personal things going on I was so excited to get away for a night and race. I had a killer night, felt some decent laps, and pushed it hard at the end and actually went so fast I missed corner #11 and ended up off course in the sand. I was able to get back on track, and finish one more lap. As I left though... I slammed my car door and shattered my drive window... and then it got worse, after getting gas I went to turn on the lights and nada... I made a risky decision and I drove from South Haven, MI to South Bend without headlights. Story on fixing the headlights below. 

At the end of September, I had my final track night of the year. Made it a family trip, wanted to have the kids watch me race. Unfortunately I still had a busted window and rain was in the forecast, and a cold front moved in that was going to kill the fun level for my spectators. I was enjoying show kids around the track, and show Heather where to watch from, and show Cruz how I check fluids, tire pressure, etc... My group ran last, kids went to watch, and I started my car, and it died. Weird, started her up and she seemed fine so I drove off. In paddock lined up to go on course... she died again. Never happens. I started her again and she was fine so I hit the track... and it was 20 minutes of fun, lap after lap, couple cars I kept up with, some Corvettes kept lapping me, but man I had fun... when they called us in to pit... she stalled again. I coasted and started her back up... drove a bit, and then she stalled. All of my stuff was packed in our van, and she kept wanting to stall, so I pulled up and told Heather let's go. I didn't want her to stall again and maybe die there and I would have to worry about towing her from the track. So we went to our hotel, I was able to keep her running. I popped the hood... oil EVERYWHERE. I forgot to out the oil cap back on. Interestingly my oil pressure was fine the whole time, so I would not of guess oil issue. Well unfortunately we left the track so I gave up my second drive time, but rain moved in so maybe I saved myself. 

I finally for around to working on my headlight fix. At home I checked fuses, googled stuff, and it looked like I needed a $200 combo switch. Well since I started this Ivy Tech Class (College Drop Out) I figured lets diagnose the problem in class. We got to work, checked fuses again, took apart the combo switch, tested wires at the headlight, took apart the headlights (not easy)... and couldn't figure it out. Instructor asked, did you check grounds at the headlights, yes, the switch, er no those grounds would be fine... So we chased the ground wires back, which was through a connector of which all other items worked... so I didn't check those... pushes that in, and BAM, headlights. We spent a couple hours, I busted a few knuckles, and took apart literally everything, but that connector. 

So what is this blog about? 

Details... small details, small distractions, small connectors... they all make a difference. Following the right steps, not skipping a step, not assuming, not over thinking... I am for sure enjoying my auto tech class, reminding me the importance of process, of logical thinking, of deductive reasoning... also reminding me how much more I have to learn in life.