Daox's 1997 Paseo Build Thread

[Daox]

I just wanted to follow up on this. I took my second drive since putting the new tranny fluid in and wow, I can definitely feel a difference when gliding with a cold engine/tranny. It was 17F this morning, and it rolled beautifully.

[some_other_dave]

I'm glad you yanked the extra batteries. Having them inside the cabin is not generally a very good idea, as they vent hydrogen gas. And, at least at times, acid vapor. Not good for your health! If you go with the supplemental batteries again, consider putting them in a sealed box with a vent to the underside of the car.

-soD

[Daox]

Thanks soD, I've heard that, but never really considered it much of a problem considering all the EVs I've seen with more batteries than me on the inside.

This evening I took the time to do one more quick mod, a mud flap delete. Really easy, and really quick.

[Frank Lee]

Old Beetles had the battery under the rear seat cushion; I never gave gas emissions a thought. Never smelled anything so the quantity of gas emissions must be quite low? And that was with the old school batteries with caps. You'd think the "maintenance free" ones shouldn't emit much.

[blownb310]

As a Paseo owner, I just read this whole thread. Good stuff and I look forward to future posts and seing that magic 60 mph barrier fall.

Mike

[some_other_dave]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Old Beetles had the battery under the rear seat cushion; I never gave gas emissions a thought. Never smelled anything so the quantity of gas emissions must be quite low?

How quickly did the rear floorpan rot out? That was caused by acid. Maybe not a lot, but over time....

I figure better safe than sorry.

Oh, and Daox--the hybrids may have batteries "internal" to the car, but they are not sharing the same airspace as the cabin. At least, not in the ones I've seen so far. They are also vented to the outside.

-soD

[PaleMelanesian]

Hybrid batteries are NiMH, completely different from lead-acid.

[MetroMPG]

I like the LED cooling fan indicator.

One way to improve it would be to tie it in with a circuit that makes it blink. (Because I think a blinking light would be easier to notice/monitor.)

Not certain, but I think the way to do that is with a "555" chip and some resistors to set the cycle length.

[Daox]

Its fairly bright when it lights up. So far, it hasn't, but I think it'll be fairly noticeable.

[Daox]

After some talking with Darin, he convinced me that going to a thinner tire had some very good benefits. So, I removed the 155 tires off my Tercel, and put them onto my Paseo which previously had 185 tires on it.


Here is a top shot of the Paseo and Tercel tire next to each other. They are the same diameter.




Fortunately (and unfortunately), while removing the tire I also found this mess. Chalk up another thing to fix on the Paseo.




I also picked up the most aerodynamic wheel covers I could find. I'll probably tape them up as some of the others here have done. They already have a nice curvature to them which I hear is beneficial vs a flat surface.