What did you do to your Vibe today?

KITT222 · Post by **KITT222** » Sun Mar 31, 2013 8:29 am

tpollauf wrote:
KITT222 wrote:So, after a good run of seven months, plus two while cracked, my bumper has left the rear of my car for a newer one to take its place.

Behold, bumper #3!

Nick. Now that you have this one on your Vibe, you'd better pre-order the next one OOOOPS !!!! I just may have jinxed you

Not funny. If that happens, I'll be crafting a metal wire frame, and layering on some sheetmetal. Also, spikes. Pointy, pointy spikes. Just to make sure their car walks away with more damage than mine.

Maybe I should get someone to bump your Vibe...

thebarber · Post by **thebarber** » Sun Mar 31, 2013 9:43 am

Finally got to try out the 4300k 55w fogs last night....I prefer the colouring of my old 3000k 35w kit

MrHatchWagon · Post by **MrHatchWagon** » Wed Apr 03, 2013 10:40 am

LED Cup holder mod. I'll edit and add pictures when I put the center console back in, I have to put some silicone in to seal it up and make sure the LEDs stay in place. DIY to follow.

thebarber · Post by **thebarber** » Wed Apr 03, 2013 3:03 pm

Took a pic while cruising the GM back lot

lannvouivre · Post by **lannvouivre** » Wed Apr 03, 2013 10:27 pm

KITT222 wrote:Behold, bumper #3!

I have personally had two bumper incidents (both very minor); one where a woman in a Ford Explorer felt she was too good to stop at a red light and plowed into me, the second I backed into a tiny, dark-colored convertible which had parked right behind me on a driveway at night. And yes, I did look back before backing up and saw nothing but empty street and imminent freedom.

I did a 0-60 mph run and achieved a ...fantastic... time of 12.34 seconds. I am reading that the normal time is...9.0 seconds for an '06 base.

thebarber · Post by **thebarber** » Thu Apr 04, 2013 3:23 pm

Now front AND rear are sportlines..

Also primed this beauty

KITT222 · Post by **KITT222** » Thu Apr 04, 2013 3:26 pm

Nice hood! I wish I could find one like that... where did you find it?

MrHatchWagon · Post by **MrHatchWagon** » Thu Apr 04, 2013 4:49 pm

KITT222 wrote:Nice hood! I wish I could find one like that... where did you find it?

+1, I'm jealous!

As for what I did, here's a picture of the cupholder LED's:

Rayven01 · Post by **Rayven01** » Thu Apr 04, 2013 5:30 pm

MrHatchWagon wrote:As for what I did, here's a picture of the cupholder LED's

Dude.. those look awesome through the bottles! I have to admit I was skeptical of the idea but that is cool.

vibenvy · Post by **vibenvy** » Thu Apr 04, 2013 6:31 pm

Last weekend it was finally warm enough to hand wash the Vibes in the driveway! They were both VERY nasty, especially the rear ends! They were sprayed off a couple times at the local car wash over the winter, but haven't been hand washed since the fall (~6 months). They have actually stayed nice and clean all week too, unfortunately we're supposed to have quite a few days of rain now so that won't last much longer

. Today I loaded up all 8 summer wheels in the back of my Vibe and am going to get them re-balanced tomorrow and have the tires checked to see how they're wearing, etc. The 18s will finally be going back on this weekend. A couple weeks later than usual.

thebarber · Post by **thebarber** » Thu Apr 04, 2013 11:45 pm

KITT222 wrote:Nice hood! I wish I could find one like that... where did you find it?

Got it from a guy parting his vibe...

thebarber · Post by **thebarber** » Fri Apr 05, 2013 3:26 pm

Bought some hawk hps pads today. Got them from microimageonline.com

Didn't really shop around, fronts were $75, rears were $73...free shipping within the lower 48

joatmon · Post by **joatmon** » Fri Apr 05, 2013 4:02 pm

yesterday I replaced the cracked hatch trim panel in my new old vibe with a good one from Bad Vibe
Today I replaced the glass run which had a 2 inch piece cut out of it for some reason during the previous owner's care.

tpollauf · Post by **tpollauf** » Fri Apr 05, 2013 6:37 pm

Junior's Vibe GT experienced it's first FLAT tire

He actually was crossing a set of RR tracks and heard this loud "pop" then ..Wobble... wobble ... wobble

YES a sidewall blowout, and these tires are only four months old. He put the doughnut spare on to get him back to classes & then home. I then (the nice Dad that I am) lent him one of my summer tires and mounted it on his Vibe to get him by till we get his tire fixed. Thank goodness for roadside hazard coverage

vibenvy · Post by **vibenvy** » Sat Apr 06, 2013 6:19 am

Yesterday morning I went over to the tire shop to get our summer 18s re-balanced and have the tires checked out to make sure they're wearing evenly, etc. I have gone to this shop quite a few times before and even bought our winter tires from them. Excellent prices and customer service! They were slow so they pulled the Vibe right in and unloaded all 8 wheels and tires to check them out. Only 4 of them (2 per Vibe) ended up needing to be re-balanced. They charged me $20.00. Not bad at all if you ask me. I was in and out in about 30 minutes. The owner ended up telling me how he used to have Matrix and then a Camry. He was going on about how the Matrix/Vibe is such a great little car, etc. He also pointed out that due to the slight uneven wear on the inside of one of my tires, that I should get an alignment. I told him I had gotten one after I had taken the summer 18s off for the winter. He said he actually had the alignment shop set the toe on both his Toyotas a little to the negative side so that the tire would sit more evenly and thus even out the wear. I guess I will keep an eye on the tires and if they start wearing unevenly, I will go out to the alignment shop and discuss the options with them. He also said when I walked in he was online looking at used Matrices because he's been thinking about getting another one

!

I got my 18s put back on yesterday along with touching up the black paint on all four calipers and rotor centers. My mom's will get the same treatment today.

Rayven01 · Post by **Rayven01** » Sat Apr 06, 2013 3:13 pm

Since I never did get any gas mileage increase out of the K&N drop-in air filter and it's less efficient I pulled it yesterday and put the paper one back. Lo and behold my rough idle went away. I also cleaned the MAF sensor again so I guess it's possible filter oil got on it, although that's not supposed to happen with the factory oil application.

ColonelPanic · Post by **ColonelPanic** » Sat Apr 06, 2013 5:20 pm

It's been a busy day for the Vibe. Ordered new tires last night, waiting on those to come in. New wiper blades.

Washed it, shined it up with some Turtle Wax Ice, and Back to Black'ed the cladding. God that cladding is awful after 10 years. The paint is shot on the roof, I noticed the clearcoat is starting to chip away. As is the paint on the roof by the hatch. Meh. Shined up nicely though for what it's worth.

Donated the ScanGauge e I used in my Accent to the Mrs. and installed into the compartment to the left of the wheel. Can't use it in the Sonic - well, I can, but a car that complicated does not need a parasite attached to the bus to wreak havoc on everything. Kiss a lot of OnStar functionality goodbye when using one too...

cptnsolo77 · Post by **cptnsolo77** » Sun Apr 07, 2013 12:33 am

Not much, used the claybar on both sideview mirrrors & threw some back to black on them. Never looked better

thebarber · Post by **thebarber** » Mon Apr 08, 2013 10:20 am

Summer mode 2013

FN01R forged 17x7.5 with last years 225-45-17 general g-max tires.

Ram air hood with function vent to my SRI...painted with chalkboard paint!

MrHatchWagon · Post by **MrHatchWagon** » Mon Apr 08, 2013 10:48 am

That hood is very cool, barber. Love the uniqueness of using chalkboard paint, too. Props!

vibedrivermatt · Post by **vibedrivermatt** » Mon Apr 08, 2013 1:19 pm

cool hood! thats some very nice artwork there.

well, I completed rear brake job on 2009 2.4 base vibe with rear disk brakes. new pads and rotors put on at 34,000 miles. I think my brakes were bad at this milage cause Im kinda hard on them.

I had to use one of those little cube tools to compress the rear caliper. a little FYI about both right and left rear calipers is that you must turn the piston clockwise with the special tool whist pushing on it really hard. I dunno if their all like this but that was my first experience doing it. The new brakes are working good.

thebarber · Post by **thebarber** » Mon Apr 08, 2013 2:02 pm

Rain washed away our artwork

Rayven01 · Post by **Rayven01** » Mon Apr 08, 2013 3:08 pm

vibedrivermatt wrote:well, I completed rear brake job on 2009 2.4 base vibe with rear disk brakes. new pads and rotors put on at 34,000 miles. I think my brakes were bad at this milage cause Im kinda hard on them.

Wow, you must be! Never heard of rear brakes going out that soon. Also if you clean the new rotors with brake clean you avoid the burnoff step.

MrHatchWagon · Post by **MrHatchWagon** » Mon Apr 08, 2013 3:11 pm

There's almost no snow left, so the summer wheels are back on!

thebarber · Post by **thebarber** » Mon Apr 08, 2013 4:40 pm

MrHatchWagon wrote:There's almost no snow left, so the summer wheels are back on!

I love it but you're in desperate need of a drop

I have h-tech's and trd's for sale...

MrHatchWagon · Post by **MrHatchWagon** » Mon Apr 08, 2013 4:47 pm

I couldn't agree more, I really do need to drop it. Sadly, right now I have a front-end clunk that needs some attention, probably a control arm bushing, or a sway bar end link if I'm lucky. I've got some rust along the roofline too, above the window, but I'll try to fix that myself. It's not too bad yet so maybe I can get away with sanding and using touch-up paint, or just painting a thin strip of black. Tempting to black out the whole roof, but the money isn't there to get it done professionally... The woes of having done five years of University, and having student loan debt..

And I'm afraid to drop it on the current, 215 000km, 10-year old suspension, because if I put any premature wear on the rest of it, that's more maintenance to do down the road I might not be able to afford

cmpltvertigo · Post by **cmpltvertigo** » Tue Apr 09, 2013 2:20 am

thebarber wrote:Rain washed away our artwork

Nice hood, what brand? Any chance of getting a pic of the underside of the hood? Again, I'm fairly new to Vibes so I'm still debating if I want to go CAI or SRI? CAI of course would provide more power from cooler air but have the potential to suck in water in the rain; SRI much safer than CAI but may potentially lose power, especially in our hot summer Texas months were temps often exceed 100 degrees.

thebarber · Post by **thebarber** » Tue Apr 09, 2013 4:30 am

cmpltvertigo wrote:
thebarber wrote:Rain washed away our artwork

Nice hood, what brand? Any chance of getting a pic of the underside of the hood? Again, I'm fairly new to Vibes so I'm still debating if I want to go CAI or SRI? CAI of course would provide more power from cooler air but have the potential to suck in water in the rain; SRI much safer than CAI but may potentially lose power, especially in our hot summer Texas months were temps often exceed 100 degrees.

Not sure of the brand...picked it up used.

I haven't fully tested the difference in intake air temps yet...

MrHatchWagon wrote:I couldn't agree more, I really do need to drop it. Sadly, right now I have a front-end clunk that needs some attention, probably a control arm bushing, or a sway bar end link if I'm lucky. I've got some rust along the roofline too, above the window, but I'll try to fix that myself. It's not too bad yet so maybe I can get away with sanding and using touch-up paint, or just painting a thin strip of black. Tempting to black out the whole roof, but the money isn't there to get it done professionally... The woes of having done five years of University, and having student loan debt..

And I'm afraid to drop it on the current, 215 000km, 10-year old suspension, because if I put any premature wear on the rest of it, that's more maintenance to do down the road I might not be able to afford

I hear ya, but at 215km I'm surprised you haven't had to do the shocks yet...

BTW, I also have some 3000k bixenon H4 hids for sale...if that's still your thing

thebarber · Post by **thebarber** » Tue Apr 09, 2013 4:34 am

On my black vibe I taped off/sanded the front of the roof then painted it with truck bed coating/rocker guard paint from Canadian tire. Worked well and was cheap.
food for thought...

PGB · Post by **PGB** » Tue Apr 09, 2013 9:41 am

Replaced my air filter, serpentine belt and added a cabin filter. I must say without another person, replacing the serpentine belt would a pain. You need tiny hands with the AC hoses running right in front. Took me about 15min. to do.

thebarber · Post by **thebarber** » Tue Apr 09, 2013 11:00 am

For those interested in the undeside of the hood

cmpltvertigo · Post by **cmpltvertigo** » Tue Apr 09, 2013 11:12 am

thebarber wrote:For those interested in the undeside of the hood

Functional hood, I like it. Also did not realize you had the VVTL-I, Nice.

One quick question is there a functional vent only on the side of the intake filter or is there one on the other side as well?

MrHatchWagon · Post by **MrHatchWagon** » Tue Apr 09, 2013 12:16 pm

Got my front-end clunk sorted out. It was making a lot of noise over bumps, especially speed bumps, and it turns out it was in fact a control arm bushing. I had gotten the one on the Passenger's side changed last summer, and it was turn for the Driver's side I guess. It sucks you have to change the whole control arm when one of those bushings goes.. And the arm was apparently a real pain to remove, according to the mechanic.

thebarber · Post by **thebarber** » Tue Apr 09, 2013 4:42 pm

Vent inlet only on side with intake

thebarber · Post by **thebarber** » Tue Apr 09, 2013 5:20 pm

Got to test the difference in intakes air temperatures (IAT) tonight.

Last week with the stock hood and short ram intake the IAT was about 13*C warmer than ambient (the outside temperature gauge in my dash) tonight it was about 5*C warmer with the ram air hood

thebarber · Post by **thebarber** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 12:01 pm

09vGT · Post by **09vGT** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 8:29 pm

I really did this yesterday, but oh well! I still had a slight rough idle even after the motor mount was fixed so I cleaned the MAF sensor. Seems to have cleared the problem right up! I also replaced the K&N filter back to the stock. I haven't cleaned the K&N in over a year.. whoops.

cptnsolo77 · Post by **cptnsolo77** » Sat Apr 13, 2013 12:56 pm

Busy today ! Replaced the power window motor & door lock actuator. I was having intermittint problems with the power window & door lock. Also deadened the driver door. Now all my doors are sound deadended & the bass from my Polks sound great. Hard to beleive its the stock HU with just 6.5" speakers. Cant wait to get my hands on the Kenwood HU I picked out.

MrHatchWagon · Post by **MrHatchWagon** » Sun Apr 14, 2013 6:24 pm

What HU did you pick out? I've got a Kenwood unit as well.

vibenvy · Post by **vibenvy** » Sun Apr 14, 2013 7:14 pm

Last Thursday was the 4 year anniversary of when I got my Vibe! What a great 4 years it's been

!

cptnsolo77 · Post by **cptnsolo77** » Mon Apr 15, 2013 7:17 am

MrHatchWagon wrote:What HU did you pick out? I've got a Kenwood unit as well.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_113HD455U/ ... D455U.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I love that the Kenwood has lots of audio controls, EQs, speaker settings & 3 levels of bass boost. Im REALLY happy with the bass after insulating the doors. The Polks have great highs but lack a bit on the bass. Its like nite & day with the deadening. If can sqeeze a bit more with a new HU, that would be enough for me. No giant sub for me. I just want a good sounding system. My ears cant handle high volume for sustained peroids. My right ear will start ringing, so i have to be carefull ! I was looking at the Alpines but it doesnt have many audio controls. Im picky with my sound

trb · Post by **trb** » Mon Apr 15, 2013 10:18 am

Finally got the chrome exhaust tip installed that Carrie sent to me like 2 months ago!

I think I got it a "bit" further out than I really wanted, but it was hard to tell when he had it up on the lift. I should have marked it before going to the muffler shop, but it is good enough. If it annoys me, I can have it moved in a bit later on.

Thanks again Carrie!

thebarber · Post by **thebarber** » Fri Apr 19, 2013 1:32 pm

Sometimes I forget how old you are

BC123 · Post by **BC123** » Fri Apr 19, 2013 4:02 pm

Optima 35 Red Top battery installed today. No warning old battery was going bad but I was suspecting that at close to 4.5 years old would need a new battery soon. Slow turn over starting car this morning and after work just a bunch of clicks as I turned the key. Not too bummed because I wanted the Red Top for a while now.

vibenvy · Post by **vibenvy** » Sat Apr 20, 2013 10:07 am

trb wrote:Finally got the chrome exhaust tip installed that Carrie sent to me like 2 months ago!

I think I got it a "bit" further out than I really wanted, but it was hard to tell when he had it up on the lift. I should have marked it before going to the muffler shop, but it is good enough. If it annoys me, I can have it moved in a bit later on.

Thanks again Carrie!

You're very welcome

! The tip looks great! Glad to see you finally got it installed

!

BC123 wrote:Optima 35 Red Top battery installed today. No warning old battery was going bad but I was suspecting that at close to 4.5 years old would need a new battery soon. Slow turn over starting car this morning and after work just a bunch of clicks as I turned the key. Not too bummed because I wanted the Red Top for a while now.

We've had our Red Tops since last summer and have loved every minute of them! Plus they look so good under the hood

! Post some pictures when you get a chance!

I finally received our 5000k white LED #921 bulbs from v-LEDs yesterday. I placed the order on March 9. They were on backorder, but were supposed to be sent out first thing in April. Anyway, I installed them and holy $hit are they bright! Last night I went out and put my mom's Vibe in reverse. Our entire driveway was lit up! Very well worth the $39.95 a pair! I highly recommend them! I am going to try and get some pictures put up later today.

lannvouivre · Post by **lannvouivre** » Sat Apr 20, 2013 10:28 pm

Wash, wax, and detailed interior. Sigh, the black roof paint is...it has water marks from rainwater and the paint from grand-dad's car port. I think that the water drops actually etched the paint or something, because the clay bar did nothing to get the marks out. I didn't try using polish. I don't think I'll be parking under the carport anymore, because I don't know if it's something in our rain (due to the booming oil industry here) or the water that runs off of the car port.

I would have taken pictures of the strange damage, but it'd be hard to get them to show. Just imagine hard water drip marks pretty much in a line, and you've got the idea.

MrHatchWagon · Post by **MrHatchWagon** » Sun Apr 21, 2013 7:18 pm

I wonder if a Mr Clean Magic Eraser would do any good for those spots... I know it's kind of a harsh cleaning product, but I've seen it take out some pretty tough stains on my car, just make sure you rinse it off well afterward. Nothing to lose, right?

thebarber · Post by **thebarber** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 6:24 pm

installed port-matched oem xrs/gt header this afternoon

i forgot how annoying it is working on a 10 year old car in our climate....

power gains? (removed)-dyno says maybe? (though when i did this on my xrs, i had intake AND exhaust already and noticed a mid-upper rpm gain...my GT has a stock exhaust)

Zimm · Post by **Zimm** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 6:37 pm

MrHatchWagon wrote:I wonder if a Mr Clean Magic Eraser would do any good for those spots... I know it's kind of a harsh cleaning product, but I've seen it take out some pretty tough stains on my car, just make sure you rinse it off well afterward. Nothing to lose, right?

didn't someone else chime in recently about having used a magic eraser and ending up with noticeable dull spots in their paint?

thebarber · Post by **thebarber** » Tue Apr 23, 2013 3:40 am