We bought Marci a new car!

Since I got my Ioniq 5 in November, it's been great. No gas stations, charging at home, all the benefits. Marci started asking about EVs so we drove a few in the spring. She checked out an ID.4 and a Nissan Ariya. She drove my car for the first time and that was that.

We let it go for a month or two, but then a couple things happened: gas prices went close to $6.00. Luckily the Alltrack is regular gasoline, but even so, it was costing us about $75-80 to fill that car up. Weekends we'd take the I5 out, so gas went longer, but it was still a bit of a shock. The AT was just paid off, so we were willing to ride it out.

Riley's Fiat 500 was paid off last year as well and his plan after graduating was to sell it for $2k or whatever he could get for it. It had pretty low miles, but the car was getting rough: trunk door wouldn't open, interior was a bit messy, stuff like that. We had just put new tires on it in February or something, so it was OK and maybe he could get a few bucks for it.

Until he got backed into in early May and the car was considered totaled. RIP F500.

If there was something good that came out of that, it was we got paid way more for the car than I expected, even more than if we sold it, and even a good chunk after they kept my deductible. They did us a favor by relieving us from having to sell it.

So then we had to make a decision. Do we let Marci keep driving the AT, give Riley my Jetta (also paid off) and move on with our lives? The Jetta had been at Mom's house for the past 6 months or so and needed some resurrecting. I think Riley would be happy with either, but in the end, we decided to give him the Alltrack and sit on the Jetta as a trade-in of some sort.

All during this time, Marci was researching a car for herself. She wanted an EV smaller than mine, but with AWD. Trouble was, anything crossover sized wouldn't have AWD, so she looked at the Kia Niro EV, which was just about the same size as her Alltrack. We drove a couple and she was pretty much sold on it. Price was decent and she could get the Wave trim, which was top of the line.

As she looked more, she found a Hyundai Kona EV Limited down at a small EV dealer in Renton. We ended up going there for a look and that was pretty much that. It was the chalk/cyber gray that I liked for the Ioniq. It had the Limited trim, with the 360 cameras, heated/vented seats, heated steering wheel. No HUD, which she actually liked on the Niro, but since she doesn't roll with normally, not something she'd miss.

We drove it around town and she seemed to like it. It was in really great shape and only had 7500 miles, 2024 MY. We had Genny, the salesperson/co-owner of the dealership, run financing for us and within a day or so, we were approved. I sent over pix of the Jetta and they offered me $2700 for it, before asking if the windshield had a crack, at which point they lowered it to $2500, which, considering its condition, I thought was fair, especially sight unseen.

Goodbye old friend!

We agreed to terms and picked it up last a week ago Saturday. Marci drove it around and got used to it over the next couple days, until I saw a weird thing on the rear right tire. Turns out the previous owner must have hit a nail and got the tire plugged. Problem was it was causing teh sidewall to bulge also. And since the dealership missed it, they agreed to replace it for us. So we picked it up yesterday, a week or so after getting it and now it's back.

Marci in the new car!

Driving it home!

Lots of bells and whistles on this car. Same as mine. I think she'll love it as much as I love the I5. Just need to finish setting up the Bluelink stuff so she can use her phone to cool/heat it, etc. And then when she charges, she's gonna love that! No more gas stations! And Riley's coming home tomorrow to pick up the Alltrack. Lots of changes, all for the better.

Jetta fun, part 2

Ok, I ordered that fuel pump and it came in. On Tuesday night, I took the car apart, thinking it should take maybe 30 minutes.

Oh, how wrong I was.

I remember the last time I went under the hood a few weeks ago, I had a hard time taking off the engine cover. Funny enough, you just pull it, it has a couple grommets under it, and it pops off. No mattter what I did, I could not get the left side to disengage. I uncoupled the cable and hose in back corner, but that MF would not come loose. I tried to stuff my arm under from the right side, I tried using a screwdriver to pry, I tried using a wrench to loosen up the male part of the grommet system, no dice.

Finally, I checked YT again and some dude said to simply grab it and pull. Keep in mind, this is like 40 minutes later. I was so aggravated. So I grabbed it and pulled. It felt like I used all my might and, finally, pop, off it came. So dumb.

I then removed some little hose above the fuel pump, bled the fuel from the pump, removed the plugs, and then tried to remove the last hose from the pump itself. And, of course, I couldn't remove it. There was a clip clamp holding the hose to the nipple and I could not get leverage or space to undo it. After trying for a bit more, I finally called it. After all that, the whole garage and house smelled like gasoline. We went to bed smelling it.

I threw in the towel after this.

The next day at work, after talking to Austin's dad, Mike, who has worked on cars for years, he recommended a hose clamp tool, which I ordered on Amazon. In the meantime, I kept driving the Jetta and it seems like it's getting worse.

Anyway, that tool arrived yesterday and I got to work last night. I popped off the engine cover in 2 minutes. I removed the little hose. I tried to unscrew the nut on one of the tubes... and then a hose in front broke and coolant started spraying everywhere. I tried to catch it with my oil catcher and a bunch of paper towels. I ended up breaking a tiny plastic nipple that went into a hose.

Needless to say, I was done after this.

I found the replacement part on Amazon for about $8 or so and was supposed to get it today, but it won't show up until tomorrow. And that's if I can undo the bolts on the pump; one of them stripped when I put it back on the other day. But I did order 3 more and those should arrive early next week. Marci is off next week, so I can take the AT to work if I need to.

This is a major pain in the ass and I think the FP won't fix it, and if not, I will call a shop. But for now, a couple more things to try.

Jetta fun

A few weeks ago, the ol Jetta started doing weird things with power. It threw a CEL and I got codes P2293 and P0087 from it. It seemed like at about 1500RPMs, the engine would lose power or buck a little. The codes seem to indicate something about the fuel system or fuel pressure.

Youtube research showed a handful of potential causes, all having to do with the fuel system. After studying some more, last week I bought a cam follower, which I remember reading about way back in the early VW days. I don't know much about them other than they were the cheapest of the potential solutions, costing about $25 or so, and easy enough to verify.

After getting the part, I used a video, took the engine cover off, then the fuel pump and then fished out the cam follower. Sure enough, it was shot. Like literally.

That giant hole isn't supposed to be there

I replaced the new one and put the car back together. I took it for a drive and it seemed great! If that fixed it, it was cheap and easy! The next morning, I drove to work and about a mile away, the bucking started again. Luckily I was right at work, so I pulled in and got to work.

The ride home was a little janky. I've taken to moving to manual shift when it pops up; that seems to help holding it at a certain RPM. It also seems better when not driving uphill, which around here, can be an issue.

YouTube research showed the next cheapest and quickest option was the fuel filter. It is located right in front of the rear right wheel and looked to be an easy replacement. I don't think the fuel filter has ever been replaced since I've had the GLI going on almost 7 years now. I broke my Amazon boycott for price and quickness and got the part here on Saturday. I put it off yesterday as I wasn't feeling great, and even though I felt lousy today (and stayed home with pink eye), I tried to swap out the part.

Videos showed it was easy enough. Jack up the car, remove the wheel (optional, but I did it), undo 3 tubes, swap out the filter. There would be some fuel dribbling out, but shouldn't take more than 10 minutes or so, and most of that time would be taking off and reinstalling the wheel.

For me, of course, it took maybe an hour or more. I probably spent 45 minutes trying to remove the third tube that sends the fuel from the back of the car to the engine. That MF tube had a clamp that was so tight to get to, laying on my back, threading my hands and fingers between tubes and wires, and with no room to get any leverage. I went back and forth. I had to call Mom and her doctor's office. I had to keep wiping my eye (pink eye goop). It was super frustrating.

Finally, I used a flathead screwdriver between the base of the tube and the filter, used another finger to press the clip, then cranked with the flathead. Poof, off it came. Had I done that first, I would've had that thing off in seconds. Then I struggled a bit with getting the frickin filter out of its clamp. Once I did that, it took all of 3 minutes to put it all back together, and then the wheel and we were good to go.

I reset the CEL and took it for a drive and it surged and bucked a little, but I took that to be the air in the line, like when I change the drinking filter in the fridge. Tonight after dinner, I took it to get my Rx and yup, more error codes. I'm going to order a fuel pump now and replace that. That should be pretty easy, since I had to remove the old one anyway to get to the cam follower. I don't know if I can see what's wrong with this one; maybe bits of the cam follower are stuck in it? No idea.

If this doesn't work, it's shop time. I wish I could just pull the f'n trigger and get an Ioniq 5, but man, it's just not the right time right now. Though I think it would be one of those things that would work itself out and 6 months from now, I'll wonder why I didn't get one sooner.

But for now, it's more DIY stuff with the GLI and, though I like doing it, it's sort of a pain. I sure would love a new/newer car right about now. I just gotta be patient.

Oh what a night! But first, job update

The day was fine. First early wake-up since starting the job. BTW, happy leap year! Today marks a month on the job and I am really enjoying it. It really is EBC 2.0, with a lot of autonomy and freedom, but preceded with my reputation, which seems to be really good.

We had an event at the IEC supporting a cyber security conference for the morning. I was tasked with taking photos of the attendees and event. I had to do that a few weeks ago and it's been cool dusting off my DSLR skills with the Sony Alpha 7R or whatever it is. Super nice camera, don't know if I love the lens.

Event went well, saw some old homies from the EBC and Cindy told them all that they couldn't steal me to the EBC. As things stand now, I'm happy where I am and the truth is, I don't think they're gonna come get me.

I was able to leave early today because the event was over and I wanted to get to band practice on time. The last two Thursdays have been 60 minutes or more on my commute home so I bailed on both. I got home by about 4:15 or so, which was great, but the commute was still 45 minutes. :/

I was chillin for a few and Marci called me to tell me her car seemed to be making a weird grinding/whirring noise and her engine temp was at 280, which is in the red! For the last month or so, she's had a check engine light on, which threw a P2681 error, which the internet tells me is a coolant sensor error.

To see if it was a cheap fix, I bought some coolant and topped it off, but that didn't do it. We've been driving on it ever since and tonight's commute may have been the last straw. I told her to hang at Factoria, which is where she was at, and I drove down to meet her.

Heading down 119th, I got almost to the 3-way stop and a bus was stopped. There were two cars behind it and a woman was talking to them. As she got to me, I could see flashing lights ahead. I thought there was an accident, but she told me that there was a house fire and it was pretty intense. I could see the smoke ahead, so I turned around and went the back way down 119th, which was fine at the moment.

I got to Target in the pouring rain and met Marci and we decided to get a quick dinner at Panera while we waited for the car to cool off. Dinner was nothing special and luckily, we had a $10 off coupon, so that offset the price a bit. Sidenote: Panera is pretty meh. I don't think I need to go there anymore.

After dinner, I jumped in Marci's car and she jumped in mine and traffic was atrocious. We were unable to go up 119th as it was blocked when I came down. Her car's thermostat started heating up immediately and I figured we wouldn't make it far before I would want to pull over again. So I parked at Target and jumped in my car and we fought traffic and finally got home around 6:30 or so.

Poor Kodo was at home all day, as usual, so I took him out for a bio break, then got back in the car with my gear to head to Robb's. Luckily, traffic wasn't too bad then, but by the time I got to his house, I had been driving for about 2 hours since I'd left work. Needless to say, it was great to play some tunes, but after a quick rehearsal and catch-up, I had to head home to get Marci to do one more chore and bring her car home.

Her car was nice and cold in the 38°F weather (it's been cold; it snowed a little tonight), so I felt OK driving it home. Halfway up the reopened 119th, though, the temp started creeping past the 1/2 way point. Even though the heat was on in the car, I put it on full-blast to draw as much heat as I could from the engine and, surprisingly, the thermostat started going down. By the time I got home, the temperature was reading normally, so that's a nice find.

Tomorrow, Marci will take my car in to work. I had a dentist's appointment planned since last year, so I will drive her car with heat on full-blast to Redmond. After that, I made an appointment at VW of Kirkland. Hopefully it's not too expensive and they can get me a shuttle or loaner to get home.

Stay tuned.