vishal

Alright, got a few questions for you guys:

1. What is required for me to add power door locks to my car? I would prefer to stick with at least the factory switch and method of operation if not the factory components.

2. I recently replaced my brakes with stock rotors and Porterfield R4S pads. Are these pads always this noisy around town? They are squealing quite a bit right now. It's only been 300 miles since the install.

3. My speedo, to my best estimate, is about 8-10mph off at 80mph. Yesterday I went on a 176 mile journey and the trip meter read 183. I am running 245/45/16s in the rear but that should not be the cause of such gross error. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

vishal

^ bump

jim968

I dunno about 1 or 2, but item 3 (trip meter) is only about a 4% error. Allowing for non-stock tires, original factory inaccuracy, and the fact that it's not new hardware makes that not too unacceptable, I'd say.

If it really bothers you, look in the Yellow Pages for a speedometer shop... some (most?) of these will have a roller test stand that allows them to check the speedo's accuracy with it in the car. Since most folks who use these facilities are doing so to try to beat a speeding ticket, they may be kind of pricey for what you seem to be getting...

Jim, "Jack Kevorkian for Senate physician!"

Manning

Regarding item 2, I use the Porterfield R4 pads on my car and have not found them to be especially noisy (Stable Energies, the folks from whom I ordered these pads, actually recommended that I go with these pads instead of the R4S since they aren't really that much different). You must install them on clean rotors and bed the pads in properly. When you install the rotors you must clean off ALL of the oily rust inhibitor with a lot of brake parts cleaner and once installed you have to bed in the pads. To do this you need to bring the pads up to operating temperature with a lot of steady hard stops and then take the car on a long non-stop drive to completely cool the pads off. The other option is to park the car to cool them off, just so long as the pads aren't touching the rotors as they cool down.

You also may want to put some anti-squeal compound on the back of each pad before you install them.

I did this and my pads really don't squeal much at all, though they are a little dusty. They sure do stop well though and really seem to have great durability.

ribs

I can help you with #1, because I did this last summer. I actually had a power lock kit that I bought from JC whitney (the pinnacle of the automotive aftermarket ) for $20 5 or 6 years ago originally to put in a dodge neon that I had at the time but never got around to. I had to fix my passenger's side door handle anyways since the bodyshop messed it up, so I figured what better time to do this since I was most of the way there on one half of the car anyways.

Installing the JCW ghetto kit requires drilling a couple of holes into a bracket that was already on the inside of the door to mount the actuators, and the actuator arms that actually move the lock are just bent around where I would imagine the stock power locks go. The install was straight foward and start to finish should have taken me about 2 or 3 hours, but the actuators have sensors in them, and of course one of the sensors was shorting out (high quality goods I tell you), so I had to figure out how to wire the whole thing together while bypassing the sensor on the passenger's side door. I also installed the actuators on the car upside down/backwards (inherent with our cars as opposed to the GM/ford style doors this kit was probably meant for), so lock was unlock and lock was unlock if you use the supplied swtich (otherwise there is no difference in operation). The supplied switch was huge and ugly, so I don't even have it hooked up. Because of the sensors (well...the working sensor in the driver's door), when ever you throw the lock up or down on that side or lock or unlock it with the key from the outside, the other side does the same thing, which is really all I wanted. I still have the wires for a switch run to where the stock switch should go, but never got around to getting a switch...maybe I will do that up at hershey this year if I think of it...I believe either a sunroof switch or a power lock switch will work. I have the brain for the power locks taped with double sided tape to a shelf of sorts underneath the steering wheel...maybe I will screw it in someday if I think of it. I don't know...give it a shot...I like having power locks, they add maybe 12 ounces to a pound of total weight to your car, and make it easier as I don't have to reach across everytime I want to let a passenger in. It isn't hard to do and works perfectly (well...except the pass. side sensor doesn't actuate the driver's lock because it is bad and not wired in)...well worth the afternoon I spent doing it.

BTW, does anybody know how to modify the driver's side lock so you can lock the door with the door open so I don't have to use my key to always lock and unlock the door when I get out? I had a VW that did the same thing, but one day I just got pissed at it, turned the key as hard as I could in the cylinder with the door open, and it broke that check mechanism and fixed my problem...but I would prefer to do it the right way on my car. Hope this helps...