DSM_guy

well in the US the build date dosent matter either. most vehicles are made even a year and some sold a few months before their model year even come around. my DSM was built in 95, but its considered a 96 year model. the 06 eclipses were avail in june or july..somewhere around there of this year....about 6 months before their "official" model year. im sure most eveyrone does that this way.

well, on monday we had the pathy towed over to the body shop, and about mid week the insurance adjuster came out to asess the damages. we just heard back today that they are actually TOTALING it! there was talk of ordering a new door for the rear, so i guess they didnt wanna/couldent fix that by pulling the dents. and a few other things. they didnt give the full rundown yet, but they said all told it was $5000 worth of damage...so i guess there was alot that i didnt see or something. but they are giving us $7000 for it which was more than we figured on. its a 98 XE with 150K miles on her. so now mom is driving MY pathy for a bit, and we are gonna go down after the holidays and put down a payment on a new beetle which my mom has wanted REALLY bad since they first came out. i just cant believe it was totalled with seemingly so little damage. i mean of course i felt real bad about it, but i guess the only upside was that mom got a bit more out of the car than she thought....and now she can get the car she REALLY wants. no offense to the pathy, and she loved it to death, but that was more my fathers decision...not hers. and her gas bills will go down substantially now.

dont worry too much about it slick. its become blatantly obvious the kid tends to run his mouth about things which he knows zilch about. and since im sure he has seen a little jeep bashing on here...he's just tryin to fit in and be "cool" -thnkboutit-

thats what i did to mount mine. they made a factory light rack for a bit...and it was basically a peice just like a roof rack peice that had holes in it. but for ALOT cheaper roof rack + drill bit = light bar. then i just ran the wire down through the pass side door grommet and behind all the panels and under carpet. i actually used double insulated wire so it would be a bit cleaner (vs having 2 wires running seperate)

ehh, its already a bit late for the pathy. hell, even the R50 (im sorry guys but you know its true) made a HUGE leap towards teh mall crawler. for gods sakes its a unibody! and the soccer mom appeal started then as well. and i REALLY hate to break it to you...but the majority of pathy and even xterra owners (even tho the x was supposed to replace what the wd21's essentially were) are mall crawlin soccer moms. so dont you hold your breath in thinking that their gonna come back with the tough-as-nails capabilities they once had. get real man...people nowdays are concerned with their in-car entertainment with dash mounted navigation and heated steering wheels. they could give 2 sh*ts about offroading. and since THOSE are the people buyin..THOSE are the people that the mfg will strive to satisfy. its that way with any type of enthusiest related vehicles wheather it be off road rigs, sports cars...whatever. they arent gonna necessarily crank out the fastest or the most capable..their gonna crank out a product that the vast majority of consumers demends..and im sorry to say but we enthusiests are in the minority in almost every aspect of automotive detail...and our opinions hold little value to the company.

marguritas vodka/spite w/ lime screwdriver vodka or tequilla and a sonic slushie (mmmm) hehe if you didnt notice, tequilla and vodka are the only liquors i particularly care for...and im NOT a beer person. if i cant have any of that at hand, ill pick up some smirnoff triple black...and the twisted isnt bad either, but its awefully sweet...bacardi silver is a bit less overpowering. i just hate beer to be quite honest. iv tried for 6 years to aquire a taste for it but i never could.

thats the only question "I" have ever asked. you get em too much bigger adn youll NEVER get teh SOB out. its rough as it is.

alright ladies iv heard of those sorts of things. no thanks..ill just get my lazy butt under the car and pull the plug. no need to half ass anything...esp when it comes to something as delicate as a car engine.

firefox here as well. im about sick of microsoft products. if i could afford a halfway decent mac i would in a heartbeat. between windows, MSN messenger, and IE...iv about had it! but uh yeah..no worries here so far -bounce-

oh noes! weve been haxored!!! this has happened to several forums (in the past) that im a member of. usually its nothing big...but other times they really wipe it out. lets hope they have had their fun and are moving on. im gonna :help:

ok well just a lil update. silver is getting towed to the body shop on monday...will get appraised and work will start. went down to clear up my ticket and it wasnt EXACTLY what id hoped for...but it was better than what i was facing. the judge (actually JP) took a look at the ticket...heard a few words from me...and knew it was a bull@!*% charge. he came right out and said it. i had THOUGHT they had teh ability to just dismiss tickets right there on the spot if they didnt agree...but i guess he dosent. he said i could of course contest it and all...but if i ended up convicted id be payin for court costs as well as the fine...as well as either extra on insurance or paying all out to take DD. so if i woulda decided to contest i would be taking a 300-500+ dollar crap shoot. and if the cop was asshole enough to write me up for that...who knows what he'd say to the judge..and pull out some back-of-the-book BS on me..then id be screwed facing a big fine. it was already a 175 ticket...then some new laws stated theyd add an extra 100 bux. but he felt bad about the whole deal so he is letting me take DD to dismiss everything and keep my record clean...i dont even get any points! so all total thats gonna be $150 with the course included...but its a helluva lot better than any other choice...and more predictable than fighting it. im sure the judge woulda ruled in my favor...but i dont have $500 to gamble with to be honest. and my deductable is only $250...so all told its gonna cost me $400 to get EVERYTHING cleared up. not too bad..but the stress and financial strain has DEFFINATLEY come at a bad time.

i plan to fight the ticket...i just dont want to go through a whole big mess of OFFICIALLY challanging it. hopefully the JP listens to my story, see's it as a totally bogus charge..and just lets it go w/o having to set up a court date and whatnot. no, mom isnt mad. like she said " id be mad if you were actin like an idiot...but its not your fault" as far as ice...we only get it a few times a year down here...but when we do get its its usually pretty nasty. as far as toys...none for mom. im payin the deductable and everything but were taking it all right back to stock. shes not an aftermarket sorta person lol too bad...i think a lift or something with some 33's would look bitchin! but alas..no. its her lil DD so...no fun with it.

ok ok, here are the pics silver on her side...baring her shame pics of the damage. mostly on the rear door. you can see where i plowed teh t-post right there at the antenna and across the door. thank god for the fence tho!

everything he said is true...esp the part about trying to find something to break your fall a bit. see my post below. fence kept me from doing ALOT more damage to my pathy than what already is done. do everything you can to be safe, stay off the brakes and use your tranny to engine brake. but ill tell you straight up...all the preparedness in the world and all the "doing the right thing" you can do wont always save you. thats exactly what happend in my case. the safest way to drive on ice is to not drive at all. if you do drive..its a craps shoot...and i lost my butt yesterday. iv driven in much worse conditions up in the texas panhandle (worst area in texas) and never had an issue. i get 5 miles from home on a seemingly normal day of snow...BAM. so just watch yourself and be prepared for the worst.

ok ok, well not MY pathy, but rather my moms 98 XE. i drive my mitsubishi because of gas mileage since i drive about 60 or so miles per day to school and back. so today it was a bit icy and i got to school ok, but the ride back was a bit different. it got quite a bit worse while i was in classes...much icier. now before anyone lectures me to the rules and precautions of driving in snow/ice...spare me. im well awre of them and have followed them religiosly in my 6+ years of driving. i was already doing about 30 on a decent streach of road. i peaked a hill and what i saw before me on the way down was just a solid sheet of ice. well i was already rolling and it was surley too late to back out. i did want to slow downa bit because i saw a car comming the other way (playing safe) so i eased her down into 2nd (no brake). well all went good till i was about halfway down. i hit a very slick patch of ice and then i lost it. turned 180*, slid across the road (this is a little farm to market country road mind you) and off into the opposing ditch. i did miss the other person with more than plenty of room (150 feet or so) and that was my greatest concern. now im no stranger to ice...and iv lost control and been taken for a short lil ride at times. as i spun aroudn i figured "no biggie" and counted on the ditch to slow me and stop. then id just give a lil wave and get back on the road and go home. ahah wrong. said ditch did nothing of the kind. it was actually sloped down a bit. well i quickly realize that its not gonna prevent me from hitting this bared wire fence broadside. so here we go...slide in sideways, wipe out one t post and i go over very slowly. the fence actually broke my fall quite nicley. but of course, they werent meant to take 6000lbs of metal leaning agasint them...so it then sat me down full on the passenger side. then the pass front window shattered everywhere. saftey glass my ass...talk about shrapnel! so anyways, long story short, cops arrive, friend arrives, friend pulls over pathy. change 2 flat tires on pathy, check fluids, and drive home the rest of the way. as far as damage...im gonna need a new front fender, a little dent reworking near the door (where i hit the T post), and some rather broad dents in both pass side doors, and some small dings in the rear quarter, new pass side door window (front) and at least one bent rim. all in all not too bad. sure, it sucks but it coulda been much worse. all doors function perfectly, drives fine..although an alignment is deffinatley in order im sure. of course i feel terrible, and everyone says it can be replace and i cant...and i know that. but i feel really bad for it all. state trooper was a ****...honestly. gave me a ticket for unsafe speed. um lets see...i was probably doing 20 or so when this whole thing entailed. i did everyting in my power to keep from losing it. i dont give a damn if i was doing 3mph or 300mph...the patch of ice was still there and was still slippery on a prety good downhill grade mind you. 2mph woulda been unsafe! and then he had the gall to consider him nice for only issuing me a warning for "imporper lane change" or some bs like that. oh yeah buddy...let me tell you, i had EVERY intention of going into that other lane! jackass! trust me, if i could had my way, i woulda stayed in my OWN DAMN LANE! but the laws of physics didnt quite ask me if thats what i wanted! hopefully the judge sees things my way and throws out teh case. i got pics on my camera phone (may post up later) of the whole area...so hopefully he will see and agree that no matter how fast i was going...the circumstances were not my fault. you know, id admit if i was in the wrong...and driving 90mph like every other moron out there. im an extremley safe driver..and it pisses me off to no end when im branded as being wreckless when i tried to do everything just the opposite! im a firm believer in if you do the crime you can pay or do the time. but in this case there was no crime committed..but they stil want a few hundred bux of my hard earned money. so yeah, yall be safe out there and keep a hande on things as best you can and good luck when the weather goes south! oh and by the way...im perfectly fine...absolutley no injuries at all. sure wish i could say the same thing for the pathy...but she will be running around lookin like new in no time. although i will say it will take a while for my snow driving nerves to mend. i was beside myself the whole way home.

yeah...my drivers side plastic POS broke as well about 2 years ago. i doubt ill ever replace it, probably either continue to use the passenger side to unlock it all or ill get keyless entry.

bah, who needs trunk space? i have a Q-Logic box with 1cu/ft for each sub (2 10") and it leaves some room. if you need more just flop down the rear seats and re-arrange your box hehe. the only prob you have when building box's around things or going with small boxes for room reasons is you run the risk of limiting the potential of your subs. you should always place them in the appropriatley sized box. each one of my 10's calls for 1 cu/ft. and there isnt really any other place to put box's of that size.

i do believe the proper name for our red (the burgundy type) is cherry red. never heard the term "cherry" referring to this dark a color...but thats exactly what it says on my OEM tube of touch-up paint. so cherry red/burgundyish for me as well!

if you really want your truck to sound all kinds of nasty (in a good way) get an open ended filter for your truck. it sounds flat mean when you roll on it hard. would probably compliment the throaty muffler nicley

yeah, thats alot of oil for a lil engine. my 6.6L 401cu/in in my buick takes only 6!

i dunno, them presenting it as a new idea is a crock. newer dino oil can last 5000 nowdays. syn blend a little longer, and full syn even longer. so you look at the 3 levels they offer. 5, 10, 15 thousand miles...well there you go, they offer just reg old dino, syn blend, and full syn and try to maket it off as some new innovation. any one of the 3 types will last just as long from another competitor, its just most people dont know that. but yeah, i dunno that id wanna let my filter go that long

are you saying that you have to crank it for 2-3 seconds before it finaly starts? or are you saying that you have your key turned over for 2-3 seconds and then the starter finally kicks in?

search around, youll see there isnt a whole lotta hope for alot of power upgrades.

if your speakers are rattling and buzzing its not a case of a crappy amp..its a case of the speakers being pushed too hard and are probably blown or their so old the foam around the cone is rotting away. id look at the speakers before i looked at anything else. as far as a deck..pick your fav unit and stick it in. youll need an install kit more than likley, and QD plugs are good so you dont hack up your stock harness..so id suggest ordering from crutchfield. just dont get a unit thats long. we have a ton of relays and electricals behind our stock unit. its hell trying to get all the wires positioned around and getting the face to sit halfway flush like it should.

FLA, if you had a hood to hack around on and acess to a wire welder or good body man, you could make your own neg pressure scoop. here is an example of what im talking about. they are often referred to as "invader" style hoods. has a reverse cowl as far as the scoop. the best way id know how to do it is get one thats made of steel..have your body man weld it to your stock hood, grind, fill, paint, but id still give it an outlet somehwere either by cutting the hood, or leaving the back open a bit.