Wild and Free

Lol and it takes a hillbilly like me to drive an all wheel drive convertible crossover SUV too, guess that makes me kinda weird and I didn't even take classes for that.

I ran the Cipa IIRC slip on mirrors on my 02 and hated them, they vibrated and shook too bad I took them off and never used them again and wound up giving them away. On my 05 I installed the Kool Vue power heated mirrors and love the wide angle mirror in them. I use this a lot while towing but never use them in the flipped up position, I think they look like crap that way plus I do not like the view through them that way so I just use the wide angle in the flipped down position, I do not know how guys can Daily drive with these things flipped up in the tow position all the time. Its hard to get them adjusted for normal driving to me anyhow.

Just gearing up for 2 road trips this summer, one in a few weeks to Iowa City IA for my sister in-laws wedding, then gone for a week in August to Dallas Texas for a get away and convention, I have an uncle who lives near Dallas we are staying with to save on hotel costs for a few days. Going to be rolling along in our Nissan Murano Cross Cabriolet Convertible for both road trips. I don't have any pics of it but this is exactly the same color one we have except the interior is Black in ours and Black soft top.

Over 2 years away. I can't plan things 2 days away lol. Wife hates that about me I roll day to day, I learned many years ago I was not one to make long term plans too many things in life change too fast so I just roll with it. Heck my wife and I even knowing we are going on vacation don't make plans we do the same once we leave as we learned this too. Always find things along the way that interest us and make detours so we just do roaming vacations and usually only plan a day or 2 ahead at most, has not let us down in many years of travelling this way and has led us into many unplanned adventures we would have never done otherwise.

I got a good chuckle out of the description but it is about as good of one as can be put to laymans terms. The heat doesn't damage the tranny so much as it breaks down the oil which is what protects the tranny system, lessen the protection ability and then you shorten the life of everything inside the trans. Heat can cause the seals to harden over time depending on how high it was then it could harden them earlier and cause internal leaks which also creates its own set of issues all resulting in shortened tranny life. By monitoring the oil at its hottest point helps with knowing if the condition of the oil has been compromised and for how long, it also is an indicator of converter issues and or a slipping lockup clutch, if the temps climb at that point while in lockup you have slippage occurring and you would never know that by measuring in the sump. I ran 2 tranny temp gauges at the same time on my 02 one in the hot line leaving the converter and one I moved between the pan and the servo port which was always the coldest temps and never varied at all. The Cooler line at converter output by tranny was consistently 30-35* hotter than sump temps during normal operations and daily driving and could get to 40-50* hotter during town driving and towing heavy, it was not uncommon to see the same tranny temp as engine temps during these conditions hovering 180-200*.

Hence what I said...........In a pinch, just give a pinch to the leaky tube to shut off the leak rather than pout in liquid bandaid potentially cause other unseen issues. I have seen many cut aways of newer cores that had that stuff in it and it is an eye opener. Want to see unhappy looks ask guys who repair radiators, they will not even look twice if they find traces of this in them, you just bought a new radiator, same as folks who pump slime and other tire goop inside tires and rims of vehicles, I have seen tire shops turn customers away after breaking a bead and seeing that crap inside them, they do not want to deal with the mess of cleaning up the rim and their equipment.

Aluma seal is really bad for and known for clumping rather than dissolving and doing what it is advertised to do, I have seen it many times on engine I have pulled down and rebuilt over the years. In our smaller and finer cored aluminum radiators and heater cores it tends to plug them up versus repairing leaks, inside engines they can damage water pump impellers plug weep holes and then getting into the computer controlled heater control valves with small orifices brings on a whole new set of issues. I have literally seen hand full sized gobs of this stuff inside engine blocks that clumped up, can inhibit proper coolant flow around cylinder and head passages and jackets ect ect. The old copper cored radiators with pencil sized core tubes are a thing of the past which is what this stuff was designed for. I doubt most of it would even reach the engine block on the newer radiators, would plug them right from the start and then you have instant heating issues from lack of coolant flow through it then if it does migrate you end up with no heat in the cab.

Thats the only place I have gotten them but I think any bigger parts house that carries AC Delco stuff should have them. Been a while since I have picked any up but they are around 10 bucks or so for a pack. You just crush them up in your fingers and drop them in the radiator, they turn to a fine powder and dissolve almost instantly.

DO NOT ADD THE ALUMA SEAL UNLESS YOU WANT MORE ISSUES!!!! Old school stuff not very friendly at all on the new stuff. Best to just get into the core with a needle nose pliers or vice grip and pinch the tube off that is leaking, very simple and effective to get you by until you can replace the core. The only other option I would recommend would be GM seal tabs, they are compatible with our newer systems and work well depending on how bad of a leak it is. I have used them for many years and they are awesome. Have actually sealed up many weeping Cummins head gaskets with these as well.

Spray can?

What did you do for the finish? Looks like hammered look spray paint my wife likes to use on things around the house and yard.

Looks good if you only have other vehicles to hammer out of your way, in my case uprights are a must for blowing critters away from the grill radiator and hood.

Pretty much!

Disclaimers all over everything as to "Offroad use only" and have to agree to knowing this is not legal for on road use ect ect, plus they are not selling add on programmers to do the delete programming which was what was being cracked down on IIRC, you have to send in your ECU for a bench tune reprogram which is probably another difference. The delete Hard parts I do not think were ever the issue but I could be totally wrong on all of it just my .

Silicone????? Don't those toilet flange kits come with a wax ring?

You could try something like this on yours. http://www.dieselperformance.com/index.php/product/index/26P

Well everything is rolling, parts for exhaust ordered and will get ecm off and sent in tomorrow, after talking with them they see the best economy with Malone stage 2, saying 5-10 mpg gains over stock with dpf delete.

PM sent to you P-D-P. I am going with Malone for the tuning. Just waiting to hear back from them to nail down details.

From visiting with tranny tech gurus the tranny term for 4th or OD lockup is actually considered another gear aka 5th or a lot of times they call it 4th and then 4th prime for od unlock or 5th for lockup or something along those lines. Those full blooded auto tranny guys have their own terminology, I have a hard time following in conversation some times when talking to them and have to slow them down and have them talk layman mechanic terms lol. I think it has something to do with how many planetary sets are used for each gear as well to how they designate what they call each gear. My 2010 Hemi is a 5 speed but there is never a reference to gear 5 in any technical manual this goes back to X gear "Prime" ect.

There are 3 companies I have found that sell the DPF delete and EGR block off plates and both come highly recommended but one is a lot more reasonably priced which is the company I am going with. Since the DPF is coming off one has to eliminate the Cats as well as they claim they can't handle the added soot so the dpf delete also comes with what is called a mid pipe to fill the cat space but in my case of wanting to keep it as quiet as possible went with the resonator option in that space. Then the EGR block off is the same as any other diesel to keep the intake from carboning up which I had to remove the intake on the 03 tdi and clean out once which was not fun. The dpf delete I am going with with a resonator and egr block plate shipped for $615. The more expensive dpf delete route Another tdi dpf delete kit Then as part of the dpf delete one has to send in the engine ecm to be reprogrammed to ignore the lack of dpf components as well as gain better running rig, there are several different tunes one can go with and there is only one company that is recommended for this called Malone tuning.

On the 06-07 it uses the same button in the end of the shift lever, you need to push it once or twice for which ever mode you want, on the 03-05 you just hit it once for tow haul mode, the 05 comes from the factory with tow haul, but they must have later released a flash to do either or which I did not know about. I only knew of the BD OD lockout box you can add on to the 05 to cancel od.

Well due to an incompetent dealer service center I am now in the process of doing a DPF delete and EGR block on the new to us 2014 Jetta TDI. Had an exhaust temp sensor go bad and dealer drug their feet on lining up the repair and not returning my wifes calls for a couple weeks, she had it in to program a new key fob and the day before the check engine lite came on and they checked and said bad egt sensor and reset lite and sent her on her way and said let them know if it comes back on, well came on same day so she calls sets up another apt to supposedly repair but she shows up a week later and they do not even look at car say they have to order part, another week and still no word So I stop in inperson and ask what the issue is and they said they have never done one yet and had to order special tooling a couple times to get all the right stuff then still had not ordered sensor so they order sensor, there were a couple different ones so they order both to make sure they have right one. They come in and finally make another apt to have the sensor changed. Note this car does not have warranty as it was deemed a total loss by the previous insurance company so it is on me for the repair. Back to story, they start pulling car apart to change sensor and then bam wrong sensor need to order another to get the right one so a couple more days go by all the time my wife has put on roughly 2K miles since this has started with lites in dash on, I had no idea nor did the dealer tell us that having one of the several egt sensors go bad would prevent the regen system from functioning, come sensor change yesterday, get it done now they claim the DPF is sooted up past the cars ability to regen, it actually will not run a forced regen with their equipment. Tell me we need to replace the DPF, I said screw that going to delete it. They felt bad and want to give me a break on the dpf replacement repair, their lack of knowledge and wasting time is what caused it in the first place, they just took on the VW line last year and are incompetent from what I see in working on them, it is a crappy job and they were not afraid to show that each time my wife showed up too which is why I didn't do the repair, I looked it up on some other forums and saw what it took just to get to the sensor, so I let the dealer do it. Had been researching the different options anyhow but wasn't planning on it until around 100K+ miles so will be ordering a dpf delete system and egr block this morning and then need to send the ecm in for tuning. All supposed to result in 5 mpg gains and a bit more power too. All for less than a replacement dpf alone. So I figure with 5 mpg gains it will pay back over time without the hassle of the emissions going forward eliminating several other potential issues going forward. End of rant.

I have been contemplating the OD lockout box from BD for years but just have not pulled the trigger, I wish every time I am pulling heavy I had it but then it falls to the back burner again.

A quick arrow and he would be the BBQ lol.

It locks out OD on all years EXCEPT 05, It also changed the lockup logic and points, it does hold lockup a lot longer before down shifts and on my 05 I notice on long down hill coasts it will engage lockup in lower gears to help with engine braking too.