Category Vehicle Maintenance

The lower half of my body feels significantly better in the span of the last 24 hours.  I had a decent gym session yesterday and I am no longer limping.

Because I didn’t get a chance to install the new idle air control valve in the Tacoma yet I decided to take the SSR to work yesterday.  It gave me a good opportunity to give my radio install it’s best test yet.

As I was cruising to work, streaming Sirius via Bluetooth via my Iphone and using the GPS to estimate my arrival at work while watching the rear view of the road via my back up camera, I was quite pleased with the end result of all of my work getting the new system installed.  The SSR now has basically the same techno-geek coolness that I like in the new Camaros.

Hell I like the new radio so much it makes me want to put a similar head unit in my daily driver Tacoma.  The second time around I am sure the install would go much smoother.

The SSR has some more needs, the first of which will be replacing the bent panhard bar, the end result of some carelessness when the vehicle was lowered.  That actually is a potential hazard if I would try to corner hard.

I also need to get an upgraded radiator fan for the SSR.  The factory cooling system is underpowered, allowing the engine temps to hit 235 when stuck in traffic.  It should ideally never cross 210 or so. I may also add a front air dam to push more air over the radiator.

In addition I plan to get a Magnaflow muffler and some upgraded exhaust tips which should beef up the exhaust note considerably. After that the only other longer term item would be to replace the pitted, shitty chrome job wheels with factory chrome wheels that will hold up much better.

So last night I wanted to get the new IAC valve installed on the Tacoma, hoping this will be the final fix for my warm starting woes.  I had to work quickly since daylight was going to be at a premium, so after making the dogs dinner I hurried outside to begin.

My experience removing the original IAC for cleaning was a huge help in performing the swap this time around.  I knew exactly what I had to do.  I managed to have the job totally done in the span of 40 minutes.  I also swapped out the PCV valve while I was in there, something I don’t think has ever been done.  I read somewhere that could be another potential trouble spot.

I have a new set of spark plugs for the Tacoma as well, I figure the 13 year old plugs that have 135,000 miles on them are overdue to be replaced.  I will probably replace the spark plug wires as well but I didn’t have time to do that last night.

Unfortunately I will not know if the new IAC fixes my warm start problem until I leave the gym today, when it typically occurs.  I am crossing my fingers hard that I have squashed this issue once and for all.

Let’s start with the SSR audio upgrade project which at this point I am considering to be finally finished.

Those of you that are familiar with the project know I had the radio in the car but there were a number of warts with the install such as very low voice guidance volume as well as low overall radio volume, fit issues where the faceplate of the radio was causing the dash to bulge out just enough to cause the HVAC controls to bind, sound that was bouncing back and forth between the speakers and I hadn’t done any of the work to mount the rear view camera.

In my research regarding the volume problem the first step recommended was to tweak the potentiometer on the GMOS-04 adapter to increase the signal fed to the amp. Of course to do this I had to rip the entire dash apart again.  I actually went a step farther and removed the top dash cover.  The reason I did that was to allow me better access to the back of the radio, hoping to be able to better place/organize the huge collection of wire/connectors/modules that are associated with the install.

Turning up the dial on the GMOS-04 did indeed appear to address my volume issue.

In addition to the top dash pad I had the “waterfall” removed as well.  I read there was a fuse box behind there where I could splice in the reverse signal wire, the wire that flips the radio to rear camera view when the truck is put in reverse.  At one point I had the interior of the truck so ripped apart that I was feeling a bit despondent, I questioned my ability to get everything back together in an acceptable manner.

I then turned my attention to getting the rear camera installed.  I had scrapped my idea of getting my reverse signal from the waterfall fuse box.  The location of the wire I was supposed to tap into was really in a bad spot.  I instead decided to just tap into the back up light harness in the back of the truck and then just run that wire along with the camera wire back to the passenger compartment.

Based on a SSRFanatic’s advice I put both wires inside of a wire loom to protect them from the elements.  Routing them up to the front of the truck was a bit challenging, it was tough finding a route that did not get close to the exhaust system.    I used zip ties to hold the loom in place along the way.

Once I got up to the passenger compartment I needed a way to get into it.  I didn’t see any easy way to do so, so I made my own, drilling a small hole in the floor of the SSR under the passenger side sill cover.  I then fed the wire loom through that hole.  The camera wire went to the control box I had behind the passenger seat, the reverse signal wire was routed up to the radio harness.

Originally I had ideas of maybe soldering my wire connections in the harness instead of just relying on wires twisted and then crimped in bell caps.  I decided to not go that route, instead I used small wire ties around the wires to further provide stress relief.

So I finally thought I was in the home stretch, I had everything back together and was ready to call the job DONE.  I took the SSR out for a quick road test and was immediately annoyed.  I was annoyed by the distinctive sound of alternator whine coming through the speakers.  The sound followed the rpm’s of the truck.  I hadn’t heard this noise before because all of my testing was with the engine turned OFF. Well I knew this would drive me nuts so I had no choice but to rip the dash open AGAIN.

Upon reading on the internet about alternator whine it indicated this can often be caused by a faulty ground.  Well I tested my ground, it appeared rock solid.  I then took turns disconnecting one connection at a time on the harness to see if I could isolate one component causing the issue.  I spent a TON of time screwing with it but got nowhere.  I was really frustrated.

Well on a whim I decided to try backing the potentiometer on the GMOS-04 back down a bit.  When I had the volume problem initially I could turn the radio to max volume and not have things all that loud.  After my tweak at half volume it sounded like it was ready to blow the speakers.  So I backed the dial back about halfway between where I started and where I finished.

That seemed to help, I heard a faint whine but hardly discernible, I could only guess the GMOS-04 was just adding too much gain.  I put the damn thing back together one final time and called it good enough.

At one point when I was in the midst of installation hell I was mildly complaining to Ali about it.   She said to me, and correctly so “Well this is what you got it for right?”  I did indeed want a vehicle as my hobby.  Part of that hobby is getting your hands dirty.  This project certainly left me thoroughly cruddy.

Along with Ali’s lack of compassion for my plight she also seemed to lack any appreciation for what I navigated to get the truck back in one piece.  I can’t blame her I guess, it would be like her telling me the complex calculations she had to do with a tube feed at work I guess.

Anyway, if you would like to see all of the pictures I took along the way you can see them here.  I also shot some video of the mess I went through, the 24-25 minute adventure can be viewed below. Anyway, the moral of this story is in the big picture, although I learned a great deal about how to take my SSR interior apart, in a practical sense I would have been much better served just paying an installer to do the work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6x2qFblMh4

Saturday we timed a 5K, it went fine, let’s move along.

So the Hooters Half Marathon was Sunday morning.  I was feeling upbeat about the weather forecast when I first saw it with predicted lows on Sunday in the low 50’s, great temps to run in.  Those hopes were later dashed when I saw that low temp was not going to hit until Sunday NIGHT.  Sunday morning the temperature at 7Am was supposed to be a balmy 75 degrees, shit.

When I woke up Sunday morning it was extremely windy.  I saw there was actually a wind advisory for later in the day.  Oh boy this is going to be fun.

We arrived at the race site a little after 6AM, the race started at 7.  After getting our bib number and race packet we hooked up with some of our fellow GCR members to hang out.  Most of the talk was about how tough the conditions were going to be with the wind.  I had decided ahead of time I was going to run shirtless because of the higher temperatures.  It would help keep me cooler and eliminate the painful nipple chafe I had last year.

As daylight increased we got a better look at the skies overhead, they looked quite menacing with low gray clouds zipping overhead at a rapid rate.

The race actually started about 10 minutes late which is pretty bad.  They made some long winded announcements that no one could hear as well as playing both the national anthem and Gold Bless America.  Ali and I wished each other luck and off we went.

So despite my severe lack of serious training and assorted nagging injuries leading up to the race I took off with the idea of still breaking the two hour goal I set as one of 2012’s to do’s.   It didn’t take long until that goal seemed to be very much in question.

No more than a few minutes into the race the skies opened up, it started to rain very, very hard.  The cold rain was wind blown and actually stung my exposed face and chest.  In no time at all the roads were bodies of water.  Everybody was thoroughly soaked from head to toe.

One of my first thoughts was “oh man, this is going to just crush the spirits of Ali & Christy”, both of whom were less than enthusiastic going into the event anyway.  Ali generally hates getting wet I could only imagine what she was thinking as each stride splashed down beneath her.

I was quite surprised when I found out later that the rain really didn’t bother her at all.  She said in fact she sort of enjoyed it.

The running with sopping wet sneakers immediately flashed me back to the Tough Mudder experience.  Thinking of that race also helped me mentally, realizing that compared to what we went through in the TM, getting rained on wasn’t a big deal.

The rain continued for a good 15-20 minutes.  In a way it was a good thing as it helped pull the humidity out of the air somewhat, helping to keep my body temp down.

Early on I was trying to find a run pacer target. The guy on the left was my first potential pacer.  He looked like a serious runner and was checking his pace often on his watch. (something I didn’t do the entire race)  He also appeared to be somewhere around my age.

For maybe a mile or so I stayed just off his back shoulder but then he started to slow down a bit and I felt like I needed to go faster if I was going to hit my goal so I passed him for good very early on.

A little later on I spotted another potential pacer, a younger muscle bound guy with a t-shirt that seemed to indicate he was part of a fire department.  I wound up following him for even less distance before I determined his pace was also too slow.

During the downpour there were a few brave spectators that didn’t mind getting wet to cheer us on which was really appreciated.  The most noticeable of all was the guy wailing on his bag pipes in the middle of the deluge with absolutely no cover overhead.

So since I couldn’t find what felt like an adequate pacer I spent most of the first half of the race just using rear ends as my “carrot”.  I slowly but surely picked off one rear end at a time.  In general I did almost exclusively passing for the race.  I bet for every one person that passed me I passed 15 more.

So I was coming up on the most difficult part of the race, the up and back over the 1 mile long bridge.  This was made exponentially more difficult by the very strong wind from the west that was smacking you in the face on the run out.

Usually when you get to the top of the bridge and begin the descent on the other side your speed picks up considerably.  Well this was the hardest I ever worked running DOWNHILL in my life.  The wind was so strong it resisted every step.

Of course the good news was on the way back across the bridge this wind was now helping to push you along.  The wind also was at your back for a good portion of the remainder of the race.

Once I got off the bridge at around the 9 mile mark I knew my two hour goal was in reach.  I also happened to finally pick up pace partner on the bridge.  Once again like last year, it was a woman.  I realized all I had to do was stick with her after she told me how she did two ultra-marathons last year as well as qualifying for the Boston Marathon.

Being able to carry an off and on conversation with her during the last third of the race really helped making those tough miles fall off pretty easily.  I was physically uncomfortable of course but not dying.  The skies had remained overcast the entire race so this really helped keep the temperatures reasonable.

Like I mentioned I hadn’t hardly looked at my watch other than to check my time at certain mileage markers.  Patty was doing it for me, telling me that we were running a strong 8:30 pace and that hitting my two hour goal was basically assured.

With about a mile to go I ran into one of the other GCR board members who was taking it easy by running an easy for him 2 hour pace.  I thanked Patty for helping me along and accelerated some more leaving her a little behind me.

At first I was having a bit of a hard time keeping up with Craig, I now was feeling pretty damn beat, that last half mile or so felt very long.  Once the finish line was a few hundred yards away I kicked in what I had left, leaving Craig behind as well.  I was very excited when I saw I could finish almost a full 5 minutes ahead of my what seemed to be ambitious 2 hour goal.  I crossed in 1:55:17, more than 16 minutes faster than my time last year. Here are the official results.

After collecting my finisher medal from the good looking Hooters girl I leaned over on the railing and briefly took in my achievement.  To smash my goal even with those type of race conditions was really something special to me.  I have always preached that actions are much more impressive than words.  It felt good to back that up.

So after downing a finish area Snickers bar and chugging a bottle of water I started looking for Ali.  Like I said, with the weather conditions I had no idea when she would finish.  I started walking back out on to the course, hoping to intersect with her and then help run her into the finish line.

I back tracked somewhere between a quarter and a half mile before I saw her.  I turned around and started jogging in with her.  Ali said nothing, I could tell by her heavy breathing she was really trying to finish hard.  When we got close I saw we were actually close to her 1/2 marathon PR time.  She wound up finishing just 21 seconds beyond her PR, a disappointment for her but based on the conditions and the course it was a really strong effort.

Like I said, before I saw her at the end I was almost positive the early rain and wind was going to suck the motivation right out of her.  Surprisingly she said she felt quite good almost the entire race.

We then waited for Christy who finished about 12 minutes behind Ali, putting in a strong showing for her as well, again made more impressive by the elements.

Ali was stoked to hear how well I did.  I told her that it was quite weird, when I woke up Sunday morning the number 1:55 literally was the first thing in my head.  I kid you not.  I thought it was odd I would even think about a finish time in that neighborhood.  It was amazing it came to be.  Visualization is powerful I guess huh?

So after the race we hung out for awhile.  At this point the cold front was blowing in, temperatures had dropped a good 10 degrees from the start of the race.  We stayed until maybe 10:30 before heading out, we were both cold and exhausted.

On the way home we both talked about various aspects of the race.  We were both happy with the way things turned out although Ali wished she could have found a spare 22 seconds somewhere.  It is hard to believe that I was not even going to do the race as late as last week and still managed to put in that showing.  So much of endurance racing is in your head, although I still attribute my significantly higher overall fitness level compared to the year before as a major contributor to my final result.

As you can imagine the rest of our Sunday was pretty tame.  I laid down for a couple hours with Ali but couldn’t get any real solid zzzz’s.  I wound up spending the rest of the day mostly toiling on the SSR audio project.

When I woke up Monday my stomach was feeling pretty awful and I was limping around severely.  My IT band felt like it was a foot too short.  I called off work to give myself a recovery day.  I feel much more human today.

The new IAC for the Tacoma showed up yesterday so it looks like I will get no break from my automotive upgrade/repair follies.  I want to get the new IAC in ASAP.  My hope is to be able to do it after work tonight.  I am hoping since I have run through the process once I can do it quickly this time around.

As promised, here is my experience installing my Pioneer AVIC-X930BT radio in my 2005 6 speed Chevy SSR. DISCLAIMER: I am not a professional car audio installer.  In fact this was the first radio I have installed in a vehicle in at least 25 years.  I have some decent technical ability and didn’t feel like forking over $500 extra to an installer to put the radio in.

My SSR had the factory Bose Premium sound system in it.  Although this radio worked fine I wanted the techo-geek features like GPS, Bluetooth support, Iphone integration and a rear back up camera.

I did a lot of reading leading up to the purchase and install of the equipment, especially on SSRFanatics.  Some people advised to rip out the existing Bose amp/speakers since they don’t have the best sound quality.  Not being an audiophile, I thought the existing system sounded just fine so I decided to leave the amp/speakers intact.

So with that being the case, here is the list of items I purchased from SonixElectronix.

1. Pioneer AVIC-X930BT (head unit)
2. Axxess GMOS-04 (wiring harness adapter designed for systems that include the Bose amp)
3. Metra 95-2009 (generic mounting plate/adapter)
4. Metra 40-GM10 (antenna adpater)
5. Pioneer ND-BC20PA (rear back up camera with parking assist)
6. Axxess ASWC (universal steering wheel controls adapter)

I already had the Ipod interface cable for the 930BT which I received as a Xmas present.

Now in addition to this I purchased several other items for the install like a set of nylon prying tools to prevent damaging the trim as well as some connectors for the various wires that will need to be connected between the radio harness and the GMOS-04.

The first order of business was getting the old radio out of the truck.  The first thing I did was pull a few fuses.

The first two I pulled were the radio and amp fuses located in the fuse box behind the passenger seat.  The third fuse was the air bag fuse which is located in the fuse box in the engine compartment.

Next up was to start the front dash disassembly. I removed the center silver trim piece using my nylon tools, it simply snaps out.

Once that was off there are 5 screws that need to be removed, 4 on the right of the steering wheel, one on the left of it.  You don’t need to remove the screws that connect to the lower dash.  It is pretty easy to tell which is which by looking at them.

Now comes the fun part, getting the dash panel popped off from the passenger air bag area.  This quite simply is a large pain in the ass.  At first I tried using my prying tools to help me but I eventually relied on simple hand strength to bend the corners of the air bag cover in such a way that they would pop through the dash opening.  The corners of the cover are pretty flexible but it still takes some serious work to get them through the opening.

I have read some suggestions that once you get the dash cover off you shave down the lip that the air bag cover sits in front of to make future reassembly and disassembly much easier.  Unfortunately I didn’t read that suggestion until after I had it back together.

In the picture to the left you can see the dash with the front panel completely removed.  Once the air bag cover is popped through the dash the rest of the removal is pretty easy.  The only other part that was a bit difficult to get off was the area around the steering wheel.  Dropping the tilt steering all the way down helped here.

All that remains is to remove the three screws that hold the factory radio in, slide the radio out and disconnect the wiring harness and antenna cable from the back of it. You are left with a nice clean hole to slide your new radio into.

So next I gathered up my GMOS-04 wiring harness (already did the parking brake bypass mod) and my factory Pioneer harness and did some reading.  To be quite honest, I felt quite overwhelmed at first, don’t be surprised if you feel the same way.  Relax, it will get better.

I was particularly confused by the GMOS-04 harness, it had a total of 5 wire connectors on it but I could only figure out where three of them went.  At first I thought somehow I ordered the wrong thing.

Slowly I started to figure out what went where.  One of the connectors was indeed unused, the gray one that only has two pins in it.  I have no idea what it’s intended use was.  The other small black connector turns out to be a quick and easy way to tie in the Axxess ASWC steering wheel control module.  I was confused by this because the AWSC comes with it’s own connector harness which I realized I simply didn’t need.

So I started going through the connections between the GMOS-04 and the Pioneer harness one by one, twisting the wires together but not crimping them until I knew everything was working.

For a ground I used a bare metal spot with a screw to the left and below the radio mounting location on the dash.  It was relatively close.

Eventually I got everything that was supposed to be connected, connected, or so I hoped.  I had a huge mess of wire in my hand that looked like shit.  I was not quite sure how I was going to transform it into a more organized mess.

I plugged all the harnesses in, put the fuses back in and nervously turned the key.  I was happy to see the radio light up and hear static from the speakers.  I tuned the radio to a local station and heard music.  Ok well that meant that I had the basic functions working.

I further tested the unit by stretching the GPS antenna and laying it on the ground in front of the truck so I could see if it picked up satellites, it did.  I also sloppily connected the rear camera just to see if that worked as well.  It did although it didn’t seem to have any connection to the truck being put in reverse. Oh well I can figure that out later.

Programming the AWSC was pretty easy once I realized I could use the built in connector on the GMOS-o4 to tie it in.  You basically just keep hitting the up volume button while turning on the car until the light stops flashing on the AWSC.  After that there are a series of flashes and if all goes well a solid red light at the end of the sequence, indicating the unit is now synched to your car and the new radio.

Ok so now I knew that everything more or less worked.  I took the harness back out and worked on securing the connections and cleaning up the wires the best that I could.  I read that some places recommend soldering the wire connections together.  I didn’t go this route, I just twisted the wires together and crimped them together securely with my bell connectors.

Even with a considerable amount of time spent cleaning everything up I wasn’t all that pleased with the end result.  You are shoving a lot more junk into the dash than what was in there originally.  I would be curious to see what a “pro” installation looks like in comparison.

So finally I was ready to put the radio in for “real”.  I mounted the GPS antenna up under the dash on top of a metallic cross brace that the magnetic antenna snapped on to securely.  I had read elsewhere this was a nice out of the way to do it instead of slapping it somewhere on the exterior of the truck.

I also fed up all of the various external connections that would connect to the radio from the floor up through the radio opening.  These included the wires for the back up camera, Bluetooth mic, and the Ipod interface cable.

I connected the GMOS-04 harness to the factory harness, the antenna to the antenna adapter, slid the AWSC onto a piece of metal that looked like a good resting place and tried to slide the 930BT back into the slot.  Oh I forgot to mention that of course I had already attached the generic mounting plate to the new radio so the tabs line up with the factory mounting holes.

Well I felt resistance as I tried to steer the radio in place.  Of course I knew the resistance was from the huge collection of stuff that is behind it.  I jammed my hand uncomfortably into the hole where the right air vent is normally located and got my fingers under the wires behind the radio to lift them up and out of the way so they aren’t pinned behind the radio.  It took a lot of frustrating manipulation but eventually I got the radio fully seated.

Ok so now I needed to make sure the radio still works with it mounted in place.  Guess what? It didn’t.  The thing was dead a s a doornail, I was pissed.  At first I just hoped I simply didn’t push one of the fuses back in but they were all snugly inserted.

Out came the multimeter and I started to troubleshoot where I was losing juice.  It took me a long time to figure out the problem and I was getting increasingly despondent before I did.  On the GMOS-04 the pin for the yellow wire, which is used for accessory power was pushed back a bit for some reason.  I pushed it from behind so it snapped firmly back in place.  Imagine my relief when everything fired up normally, whew.

Ok I thought the hardest part was behind me, putting the dash back together shouldn’t be that bad, right? Wrong.

If I did that little mod I mentioned around the air bag opening I am sure this would have went better.  I determined the air bag going back through the hole was the first step in getting everything else back together.  Doing so again was tough as hell, requiring even more vigorous hand manipulation than required to remove it.  I was quite frustrated but eventually persistence won out and I forced the cover back through the hole in the dash.  I wasn’t out of the woods yet.

In addition to getting the air bag cover back through the hole, you also have the difficult task of getting the dash air vents lined up with the ducts behind them.  It was tough as well.

Then I ran into another issue, the dash didn’t seem to want to snap back together a 100%.  Eventually with some vigorous pounding with the heel of my hand it did appear to snap into place but then I noticed the radio was sitting oddly.  Well of course I couldn’t have this and was dejected knowing that it meant I had to pull the dash cover all the way off again.

Once I did I saw that my pounding had snapped one of the plastic mounting tabs on the mounting kit, shit. I also realized that I must have had the radio mounted more forward than the factory radio, causing the tight fit.  The sides of the 930 BT have a number of mounting holes with different letters next to them but I just used what looked right.

So I had to run off to Best Buy to get another mount kit.  Putting it on meant I had to slide the radio out and then repeat the incredibly annoying process of getting everything shoved back in there.  I was pretty damn miserable at this point.

After some more futzing around I got the radio and dash back on albeit not perfectly.  There is still some slight issues with the fit and finish.  The radio still seems to protrude a fraction of an inch too far, causing the silver trim piece to be shifted down just enough that it causes some drag on the climate controls which will need to be addressed.

To the casual observer/rider they won’t notice the wart but I know it’s there.

I didn’t mount the camera in the license plate area yet, that shouldn’t be too tough to handle.

I didn’t try to be very fancy with my Ipod cable routing.  I have seen some guys modify their ash tray or glove box so it can house their Iphone.  I simply ran the wire along the passenger side of the center console and ended it in the parking brake area so I can just plop my phone there.  Since the radio supports Bluetooth streaming the cable isn’t really needed for a lot of stuff anyway.

I decided to mount the mic for my Bluetooth up to the driver side visor.  I have seen some guys mount the mic on the steering column but I think up on the visor is less obtrusive while being more effective since it is closer to your mouth.

There are some outstanding bug/question/issues I have with the radio which I have yet to address.

They are the following.

The rear backup camera does not flip over to the rear view automatically when the truck is put into reverse. (six speed manual) I triple checked that I had the correct wires connected between the GMOS-04 and the Pioneer wiring harness to support this but it still doesn’t work.

The voice guidance volume level seems too low even with having it configured to max volume.  It also doesn’t seem to cut out the music source when it gives guidance which makes no sense.  I will need to play with it some more I suppose.  The cabin noise in an SSR could make hearing the voice guidance tough I guess.

I think it’s weird that the standard map display does not have an option to display vehicle speed.  That is kind of annoying.

When I first tried the radio on a test drive I noticed my tach was “sticking”, reading about 1500 rpm’s higher than normal.  Luckily that problem seemed to fix itself.  I can only guess it was related to the banging to get the dash back together.

Be careful when banging on the dash.  I inadvertently knocked out some fins on the air vents.  I didn’t find all of them.

Other than those few items I am very pleased overall with the radio.  The GPS works well, the Iphone integration is pretty damn slick and I find the overall radio user interface visually pleasing and easy to use.  In fact it makes me want another one to put in my daily driving 99 Tacoma but that would be too financially painful at the moment.

As I address my remaining issues and complete my camera installation I will report back with more results.  I hope you found this somewhat helpful.  I may look into removing the top dash pad to make guiding the harness and wires back into the mounting location cleaner.

If you would like to see all of the pictures I took during the install you can see them here.

So yesterday several months of research, consternation and indecision regarding what route to go with an audio upgrade for the SSR finally culminated with my purchase of equipment online. I have compared options buying it all from a local audio dealer, piece meal from various internet sources or from an online audio outfit like Crutchfield.

I decided to go with sonicelectronix.com, who offers similar customer support to Crutchfield but prices their equipment more competitively.  I actually got a better deal calling them up than if I went through their web site which was kind of odd.  The guy on the phone also steered me to some better options for certain items instead of the web site recommendations.

I decided to go full geek and opted for the back up camera that includes the park assist function that utilizes a separate processor to overlay graphics on the image, depicting their distance as potential obstacles.  It’s a feature I wouldn’t have been able to get even on a brand new Camaro. I also got the harness needed to maintain the use of my steering wheel audio controls.

Another nice part about buying from Sonic was I paid no sales tax since they are based in California, they ship it all for free and include the mount adapter hardware for free.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have some apprehension about doing this install myself.  I will definitely be taking a “measure twice, cut once” attitude during the install.   I expect there will be many mini-hurdles along the way. Hopefully there aren’t so many to clear that my legs give out. One thing is for sure, I will become much more familiar with the workings of the SSR.

The truck warm rough idle issue is really getting to be a pain in the ass and it seems to be getting more prevalent.  Two footing the gas and brake is never a good thing.  I have already resigned myself to buying a new IAC for the truck, I was just hoping to wait to do it until we get word about our tax return from our accountant.

On the way to work today even after the real rough idle disappeared I had a few unexpected stalls when I was standing still.

So Saturday morning Ali and I decided to cut ourselves some slack and instead of getting up at 4:30 AM to do the GCR club run we instead decided to just run by ourselves a bit later.  Before running we stopped by mom’s place.  We had a bunch of items from our garden to give her and I also needed to pick up her tax information as well as her artificial Xmas tree that we store in our smaller shed.

We decided to run around the water park, doing the big 10k outer loop.  About an 1/8th of a mile into the run I suddenly found myself crashing down on to the sidewalk.  I somehow managed to get the toe of one foot stuck in the shoelace loop of the other, tripping myself.  I was stunned for a second and Ali was worried I hurt myself seriously, I went down pretty hard.

A quick physical inventory turned up some brush burns on the side of right knee and some banged up palms but other than that I felt ok.  I got back up and told Ali I was good to go.

Ali kept up with me for the entire run although she was really struggling during the second half.  The worst part of the run just happened to be the last part of it when we turned onto Livingston Road and got smacked in the face with a wind tunnel that lasted all the way back to the park entrance.

There were a few points where I thought Ali was going to stop.  I can normally tell when this will occur based on her breathing which gets uncontrolled and heavy.  To her credit she pushed through those spots although she later admitted to me that she did want to stop multiple times. One advantage of Ali running with me is I can push her to run harder than she would run on her own.  She has been making some strides in her pace lately, running her first sub 8 (7:59) speed mile ever at track practice earlier in the week.

When we completed the 6 miles Ali was spent.  I took a Goo and a drink of water and ran the 2 mile loop inside the park myself, I wanted to make sure I at least upped my mileage from the 7 miles we did last Saturday.  Despite already running 6 miles I trekked the last two at a decent clip right at or under a 9 minute mile pace.

By the time we got home it was close to lunch time.  After eating lunch Ali retreated to the bedroom for a nap. I attended to the remaining house chore items before sitting down to do mom’s taxes on the TurboTax web site.  I have used the TurboTax online version for several years to do mom’s taxes and have had no complaints.

Mom was concerned about her taxes for 2011, figuring she would have to pay into the system since she had to pay taxes on her SS benefits.  When she was collecting unemployment she at least had the taxes taken out up front.  With mom’s current income stream the last thing she needed was a big tax bill.

Well by the time I was done I had good news.  Instead of paying in, mom instead was getting a refund, a sizable refund, probably the biggest amount she ever got back.  Mom of course was very happy to hear the news and was very surprised.  I told her it was because of her low income level, sort of a bitter sweet situation.  Yea it is nice to have a super low tax rate but it would obviously be better to pay more taxes if you had more of an income stream coming in.  Anyway, the extra cash will certainly be a good thing.

Saturday night Ali and I decided to go out for our official Valentine’s Day dinner.  I suggested to Ali we do it Saturday and then on the actual holiday I would treat Ali to pizza since that is her favorite meal of all.

We decided to go somewhere that we knew would be a madhouse in season on a Saturday night, the Naples Carrabbas.  We thought we would be “smart” and get there relatively early at 5:30.  That put us at the beginning of happy hour so we have plenty of time to take advantage of 2 for 1 drink pricing and also hopefully put us ahead of the Saturday night dinner crowd curve. Well one of the two things worked out.

5:30 may be early for traditional dinner goers but it is right in old person prime time.  I was a bit shocked when after I parked the SSR Ali reported a 60 minute estimated wait time. Oh well typically they will overestimate the wait so they can deliver an actual wait time that is less so I figured we would have a seat in 40 minutes or so.

Ali got the happy hour kick started by getting my 2-1 Bud Light taps and her double serving of white zinfandel.  The area around the bar was quite crowded so I suggested to Ali that we head outside to sit on a bench, which we did, briefly.  The cold front had already started rolling in and it was too cold for Ali’s tastes outside, we decided that being warm but crowded was a better alternative.

Well we found a small section of floor that was out of the main flow of bodies.  We entertained ourselves by people watching, primarily old people watching.  I would estimate that 75% of the patrons were 65 years or older.  Seeing what potentially waits down the pipeline for me is pretty depressing although I told Ali I certainly hope to expire well before things would progress too far.  I just have no desire to simply exist where the highlight of my day is a meal.

The four beers I downed did a good job of making the wait tolerable, even as it extended past what we were originally told.   We wound up standing around for 70 minutes until our buzzer lit up. Eventually we got seated and were greeted by our polite but rather generic waiter.  One thing that we typically enjoy at the Naples Carrabas are servers that make an effort to engage the customers in a very friendly way.  Well this guy was not up to snuff in that regard.

Our meal itself was good as normal.  Since it was “Valentine’s Day” I didn’t even make a fuss about getting desert after a caloric bulging pasta and bread filled meal.  Ali I shared  some chocolate desert that went well with my coffee.

Saturday night I started watching season 4 of Breaking Bad.  Randall had given me the season on a set of DVD-R’s.  Well the 360 can be weird when it comes to playing content on DVD-R’s.  Although I watched Dexter on burned DVD-R’s as well, for some reason the BB discs absolutely would not play.

Well after futzing around unsuccessfully with it for a bit I punched “breaking bad” into the 360 Bing search to see what my online options were.  I saw I could get episodes on Vudu, a service I never used before.  If I signed up for the service I got a $5 credit which was enough for me to “buy” the first two episodes.

Well of course I had no intentions of buying all of the episodes. I later figured out a work around.  I throw the dvd into my computer and create a 4 episode AVI file that I can stream to the 360.  I tested it out last night and it works well.  It goes without saying that so far the current season of Breaking Bad is outstanding.

When I woke up Sunday morning I felt crappy.  Basically the lower half of my body just felt shitty.  The spot where I fell not only had painful brush burns but also some bruising as well.  Me left knee didn’t feel fantastic either.  I was walking around like a stiff 80 year old for a good portion of the morning.

Sunday was very low key for the most part.  I was feeling unmotivated plus it was damn cold outside, in the 40’s for a good portion of the day.  I did have one suggestion, to take the dogs out to the swamp for a walk, since the cold temperatures would help prevent them from getting overheated. We headed to the swamp after lunch.

As expected, the dogs definitely had more endurance walking in the cold air, we wound up going the furthest into the swamp on foot than we ever had.  I sort of expected to see a lot of gators out trying to warm up in the sunshine.  I was surprised that we saw no adult gators at all, only 3 baby gators up on a log.

We did have a swamp first as we were on the way back.  A decent sized animal, a little smaller than Nicki, darted out on the path in front of us.  It paused for a few seconds before the barking of the dogs scared it away, it was a bobcat.  Ali and I knew that bobcats were a pretty common Florida predator but they are typically nocturnal.  This was the first time we ever saw a bobcat in the wild.

After the dogs settled down we continued walking until we ran into two women walking into the swamp that Ali happened to know.  We were surprised that after we told them of the bobcat sighting, pointing back to where we saw it, the bobcat had reappeared, standing in the middle of the path, interested in something. It was a cool way to wind up the hike.

Sunday evening I watched the Planet of the Apes movie, the new one of course.  Ali started watching the movie with me but soon bailed.  The theme of the chimps getting abused was not something that she was interested in watching. Of course the abuse lays the groundwork for some payback later on.

I liked the movie overall although there were some loose ends that were sort of left dangling in the wind.  I couldn’t help but think about that woman that had her face ripped off by a chimp repeatedly through out the film.  I’d give the flick a B+, worth a rental.

I have outlined once or twice the annoying problem I have with toenail fungus.  It has been an issue for a long, long time, probably pushing 10 years at this point.  Thankfully it has been isolated to only 3 of my 10 toes.

Well over the years I have been trying various things to clear it up.  I have applied various creams to the affected toes before bed and then covered it with a sock.  I have soaked the feet in warm water and epsom salts.  I have cut the nail super short and tried to file the affected area.  None of it has really worked.

Now I think part of it is a lack of patience and consistency on my part.  It takes a long time to treat this sort of thing and an even longer time for the affected nail to grow out.  I think I have not been diligent enough.

Well anyway I recently did a search for home remedies for the problem and hit on this page.  Two of the suggestions I had not heard before, using vinegar and/or WD-40.

WD-40 is truly a magical substance.  I have heard it suggested for all sorts of applications outside of it’s intended automotive lubricant designation.  Anyway I read multiple reports of people treating their fungus successfully by simply applying WD-40 to the affected area twice a day, simple enough.  Hey I have nothing to lose.

On a related foot subject, when I was at Sam’s Club Friday I got the inspiration buy some new socks.  My sock drawer has been filled with mostly older socks that are the varying shades of off white / gray that socks go through during their lifespan.

Well I saw packs of BLACK socks and was inspired.  Black socks make so much sense. If black socks get dirty  they still look black, what a brilliant invention.  I had two choices, Burlington socks and New Balance branded socks.  Seeing the Burlington socks were made in the USA and the NB socks were made in Mexico made the decision a no brainer.  I threw out any even slightly questionable old white socks I had in my drawer and added my 11 pair of fresh black socks to the mix.

Next week my dad, step mom, my brother, his girlfriend and the two dogs will be arriving for an extended visit.  I am taking all of next week off as a result.  I am hoping to get all of the SSR radio upgrade stuff ordered so I can use some of that time to do the installation.  Dad is always looking for a project to help me with when he visits anyway.

Oh yea, I forgot to mention Whitney Houston died.  As you can tell I am really broken up about it.  I have little sympathy for someone with so much talent that threw it away and basically turned into a crack whore.  I have a very Amy Winehouse’esque attitude about it.  If you are going to keep playing Russian roulette with your life, don’t be surprised when you finally hit the chamber with a bullet in it. See ya later Whitney.

So yesterday I claimed I was 90% sure that my cleaning of the IAC valve on my Tacoma was going to take care of my warm starting problems once and for all.  Well I guess I am one of the 10% after all.  When leaving the gym yesterday I experienced the same issue and once again when I left early to go home  to meet the mattress delivery guys.

As you can imagine I was discouraged that the effort I put into cleaning the IAC appears to have been for naught.  My next plan is to disconnect the battery cable for an extended period of time to allow the engine computer to totally reset.  There is a remote chance that could work.

After that I could look at buying a replacement IAC which will run about $200.  There is a chance that the solenoid that actually opens and closes the valve (part of the IAC) is defective.  Of course if I spend the time and money on a new IAC and it still doesn’t fix the issue my frustration factor will be multiplied several times over. Either way I will wait till our tax refund hits to buy more parts for it.

Last night I seemed to arrive at a firm decision to perform the radio upgrade on the SSR myself.  The self doubt I was harboring about the project just felt less important than saving the money and the satisfaction of doing the job myself.  When you face something you don’t feel comfortable doing, 9 times out of 10 that is the signal that is exactly what you should be doing.  That is how you grow and learn.

So after repeated calls to the shipping location I finally got a delivery window of between 3PM and 7PM.  When I got home from work I got busy disassembling the old bed and dragging it out to the dining room, hoping the delivery service also included removing the old bedding. (I wasn’t sure)  It was a bit of a chore lugging the king size mattress around.  I also figured it would be nice to put clean sheets on a brand new bed so I threw the sheets in the wash.

I was feeling sort of blah since the gym where a three mile run on the treadmill after doing my GUTS routine really wore me out.  The idea of juicing seemed like entirely too much work.  I was very close to just throwing a Lean Cuisine meal in the microwave.  I decided to just suck it up and make the juice, adding beets to the mix.  Beets will dominate the color of any juice and their sweetness helps counteract stuff like spinach, celery, tomato and broccoli.  Ali liked the juice as well, she is a beets fan.

Well it was now 6:45 and still no delivery guy.  I called and left a message.  He called back a few minutes later and said they should be at our place in 20-30 minutes, we were the last stop of the day.

The truck arrived a few minutes before Ali got home from track practice.  It was good Ali got there so she could try to keep the dogs occupied.  They were both very interested in the delivery guys and were getting in the way.

The delivery guys were happy that I had everything totally ready to go.  All they had to do was drop the box springs and mattress on to the bed frame and they were done.  Evidently most people expect them to do more of the tear down.

The two guys seemed nice enough, especially considering they are based out of the Miami area.  They said they had to drive back across the state and then report to work at 6:30 AM to head towards the Keys today. I felt bad for them and had no issue handing them a $20 bill for their efforts, especially since they took the old bedding as well.

The first thing Ali and I noticed was the bed height was now significantly lower than it was with the old pillow top mattress.  I bet we are a good 6-8 inches closer to the floor which is fine, it makes it easier for the dogs to get on and off of.

This mattress was listed as a “firm” ,a dramatic departure from our old puffy mattress.  I had some worries about buying a mattress without ever laying on it, especially when changing the type of mattress.  Well the new mattress is dramatically harder than what we slept on for the last 7-8 years but with the two mattress toppers we have it took the edge off.

Ali and I both woke up this morning with no reported problems sleeping.  Ali, whom often woke up with a sore back because of the bowled out shape our old mattress developed, said she had absolutely no discomfort last night and felt great.

Yesterday I got a message from Autozone that my IAC gasket was in.  I was surprised because I was told it wouldn’t arrive until Wednesday.  I had to laugh out loud at the Vonage text translation of the voice mail. Here is what it thought it heard.   “This is Roy. I am calling from outdoor song to let you know about the car payment. Thank you”

I was worried when I stopped at Autozone on the way home and the guy walked out with a huge cardboard envelope that was at least a 2 foot square.  The part I ordered was all of 3 inches .  After he ripped open the cardboard and another smaller envelope inside I was relieved to see that the gasket was indeed what I needed.

When I got home I headed right out to the garage to try to put everything back together before I ran out of day light.  The new gasket fit exactly as it should.  Reassembling the throttle body and reattaching it to the truck went smoothly.  The truck fired right up although the real test is when I do my first warm start. I am 90% sure that I have squashed the problem.

I made a video outlining the steps I took to clean the IAC since I was unable to find any Tacoma IAC cleaning videos going into the project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-71hfgaxzc

So we are supposed to receive our new bed today.  Last week I was contacted by the company responsible for the delivery and set things up.  I was told the night before I would be receiving a call giving me a 4 hour delivery window.  Well I received no call.  I called and left a message, hoping someone calls me back to let me know when I can expect someone to show up.  I wouldn’t be surprised if my notice is the call that says “we are at your front door and no one is home”.  Oh well, I guess they will be waiting if that is the case.

Yesterday when I was using StumbleUpon I was directed to a pretty cool job search sight, simplyhired.com.  The site aggregates job listings across many sources and presents them in an easy to use interface.  Of course I did a few searches based on mom’s address and came back with a few interesting hits that I sent to her.

Last week a copy of Newsweek showed up in our mailbox with my name and address on it.  I was baffled.  I definitely did not subscribe to the weekly periodical that is typically found in doctor waiting rooms.   Hell the only subscription I have anymore is Wired and the paper version typically goes right in the recycle bin since I can read the enhanced electronic version on my Kindle Fire (or Ipad).

Maybe someone got a free subscription deal and put my name down as a joke.  Some FB friends said they too have started receiving magazines they didn’t order and heard it is a gimmick publishers have been trying to boost subscriptions.  Well I can assure you, it won’t work in this case.

I saw Rick “Anal Fluid” Santorum won three primaries, well not really, they were more like straw polls since no delegates were decided based on the results.  The election process is so needlessly complicated and stupid.  Anyway grats to the republican voters of Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri for firmly establishing that you are indeed first class ass hats.

In a story near and dear to Rick’s heart, since he thinks gayness can be cured and is somewhat similar to bestiality,  a California court ruled it was illegal for voters to overturn the gay marriage right (Prop 8). I think this is a great thing but of course Rick doesn’t or the religious marriage police.  I have yet to hear one logical explanation of how allowing two men or women to marry each other affects anybody else in a negative manner whatsoever.  Maybe that is because there is no logical explanation.