Re: What Did You Do With Your Kizashi Today?
Posted: Tue May 26, 2020 6:18 am
Finally took Kitsune into my buddy’s private shop with full car lifts for a whole list of things.
1. 6-month motor oil change. Went with Royal Purple 5W-30 since it was only $2 more than the Penzoil Platinum Full Synthetic that I was going to go with anyways.
2. CVT Fluid drain and fill. Went with Amsoil Full Synthetic CVT Fluid.
3. Front Brake Rotors and Pads. Last year, I bought some StopTech front brake pads, StopTech drilled and slotted front rotors, as well as some StopTech rear brake pads. I changed the rear brake pads last fall, because they old pads were organics and were basically gone. However, I skipped doing the fronts since they still had a lot of meat on them. Turned out to be a good choice, because the rotors were frozen to the hubs and I had to beat on them for like 15 min each to get them off. There’s no way I would have been able to get them off with the usual 6-8 inches of clearance from my jack stands.
Notable events:
- Found a bungee cord wrapped up in my rear driver-side wheel assembly from rear brake pad change I did last fall when I used it to hang up the caliper while I was changing the pads. It's literally been hanging out in there for like 6+ months. *insert facepalm here*
- Royal Purple motor oil is actually purple. *insert surprised Pikachu here*
- CVT fluid smells absolutely awful. Maybe worse than diff oil.
- Hopkins FloTool Funnel fits PERFECTLY inside the CVT fill spout. Many thanks to Ronzuki for posting it in his CVT drain and fill thread. One of the best $5.50 I've ever spent. It even has a little valve that you can twist to close funnel from the tube.
https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/b/fl ... nel&pos=14
- The top brake caliper nut is a pain in the ass to get to, even with a lift.
- The big bolts holding on the brake calipers are the same size as the lug nuts: 19mm.
- I have officially worn down the shoes on Kitsune to the 2/32nds mark. It’s time for new shoes.
- Slightly overfilled the transmission. Buddy used to work for a transmission shop and said that they would slightly over fill transmissions all the time. So… fingers crossed, I guess?
- Filled the brake fluid reservoir a month or so before this job. Compressing the brake pistons back into the calipers caused some of the brake fluid to overflow out of the reservoir. Fun mess to clean up.
Results:
- Had a bit of transmission whine above 2500 RPMs, since I bought the car in Q1 2019. No one else really noticed it, I think, but it was definitely on my mind. After the CVT drain and fill, CVT whine is GONE!
- Transmission is a little jerky when manually switching ratios between with the paddles. Will monitor closely.
- Engine responsiveness and torque is noticeably improved after the oil/CVT fluid change.
- Brakes stop real good. Of course, they did before too, but now they look good as well as look good. Hopefully, I can keep the new rotors for getting glued to the hubs, or at least don’t have to try and get them off anytime soon.
- Kitsune decelerates faster than the speedometer can register now. Part of the brake pad break-in procedure is to speed up to 40 mph and slow down to 10 mph 5 times, then speed up to 35 then slow down to 5 mph 5 times. There were a couple times during the second part of the procedure where the speedometer was between 5 & 10 mph, but she was completely stopped in the middle of the road already. I'm pretty sure that she would do that before, but I also don't remember having this issue when I was trying to break in the rear pads last fall.
To Do:
- I have an extra gallon of the CVT fluid, in case I want to do another CVT drain and fill. At this time, I don't know if I'll use it for Kitsune in the near future, or just save it for Azumi.
- Not planning on doing a CVT filter change anytime soon, but was curious on others opinions about the necessity of that job.
- Take both cars in for recent recall notices. Notably, the issue where putting anything in the front passenger seat while driving causes the Buckle Seatbelt alarm to go off in leather equipped Kizashis like Kitsune.
- New shoes, like I mentioned earlier. Probably gonna go with Michelins again.
- Pro alignment. The alignment in Kitsune has been slightly off since I got her. I took her to a chain mechanic shop, and they straightened the alignment, so the wheels track straight, but the steering wheel is just slightly off-center still. I'm gonna take her to a pro frame shop, and see if they can't gimme a little toe-out on the fronts and backs and negative camber on the rear wheels.
1. 6-month motor oil change. Went with Royal Purple 5W-30 since it was only $2 more than the Penzoil Platinum Full Synthetic that I was going to go with anyways.
2. CVT Fluid drain and fill. Went with Amsoil Full Synthetic CVT Fluid.
3. Front Brake Rotors and Pads. Last year, I bought some StopTech front brake pads, StopTech drilled and slotted front rotors, as well as some StopTech rear brake pads. I changed the rear brake pads last fall, because they old pads were organics and were basically gone. However, I skipped doing the fronts since they still had a lot of meat on them. Turned out to be a good choice, because the rotors were frozen to the hubs and I had to beat on them for like 15 min each to get them off. There’s no way I would have been able to get them off with the usual 6-8 inches of clearance from my jack stands.
Notable events:
- Found a bungee cord wrapped up in my rear driver-side wheel assembly from rear brake pad change I did last fall when I used it to hang up the caliper while I was changing the pads. It's literally been hanging out in there for like 6+ months. *insert facepalm here*
- Royal Purple motor oil is actually purple. *insert surprised Pikachu here*
- CVT fluid smells absolutely awful. Maybe worse than diff oil.
- Hopkins FloTool Funnel fits PERFECTLY inside the CVT fill spout. Many thanks to Ronzuki for posting it in his CVT drain and fill thread. One of the best $5.50 I've ever spent. It even has a little valve that you can twist to close funnel from the tube.
https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/b/fl ... nel&pos=14
- The top brake caliper nut is a pain in the ass to get to, even with a lift.
- The big bolts holding on the brake calipers are the same size as the lug nuts: 19mm.
- I have officially worn down the shoes on Kitsune to the 2/32nds mark. It’s time for new shoes.
- Slightly overfilled the transmission. Buddy used to work for a transmission shop and said that they would slightly over fill transmissions all the time. So… fingers crossed, I guess?
- Filled the brake fluid reservoir a month or so before this job. Compressing the brake pistons back into the calipers caused some of the brake fluid to overflow out of the reservoir. Fun mess to clean up.
Results:
- Had a bit of transmission whine above 2500 RPMs, since I bought the car in Q1 2019. No one else really noticed it, I think, but it was definitely on my mind. After the CVT drain and fill, CVT whine is GONE!
- Transmission is a little jerky when manually switching ratios between with the paddles. Will monitor closely.
- Engine responsiveness and torque is noticeably improved after the oil/CVT fluid change.
- Brakes stop real good. Of course, they did before too, but now they look good as well as look good. Hopefully, I can keep the new rotors for getting glued to the hubs, or at least don’t have to try and get them off anytime soon.
- Kitsune decelerates faster than the speedometer can register now. Part of the brake pad break-in procedure is to speed up to 40 mph and slow down to 10 mph 5 times, then speed up to 35 then slow down to 5 mph 5 times. There were a couple times during the second part of the procedure where the speedometer was between 5 & 10 mph, but she was completely stopped in the middle of the road already. I'm pretty sure that she would do that before, but I also don't remember having this issue when I was trying to break in the rear pads last fall.
To Do:
- I have an extra gallon of the CVT fluid, in case I want to do another CVT drain and fill. At this time, I don't know if I'll use it for Kitsune in the near future, or just save it for Azumi.
- Not planning on doing a CVT filter change anytime soon, but was curious on others opinions about the necessity of that job.
- Take both cars in for recent recall notices. Notably, the issue where putting anything in the front passenger seat while driving causes the Buckle Seatbelt alarm to go off in leather equipped Kizashis like Kitsune.
- New shoes, like I mentioned earlier. Probably gonna go with Michelins again.
- Pro alignment. The alignment in Kitsune has been slightly off since I got her. I took her to a chain mechanic shop, and they straightened the alignment, so the wheels track straight, but the steering wheel is just slightly off-center still. I'm gonna take her to a pro frame shop, and see if they can't gimme a little toe-out on the fronts and backs and negative camber on the rear wheels.