As of lately I have been working on addressing all the maintenance issues with my car. I got a thorough inspection done at my workplace and came up with the following issues:
Worn rear tires (already knew)-Replaced
Rekt compliance bushings in the front lower control arms-Replaced
Bad rear dampers -Replaced
Worn rear brake pads -Replaced
Alignment out of spec -Adjusted
Miscellaneous oil leaks -Pending
First up, I did the brakes. Considering my driving style, and the fact that they are in the rear, I will never need to replace these again. My car used to wallow and bounce slightly under hard cornering, new rear shocks fixed that (front shocks are less than 5000 miles old), and may have helped reduce some of the ridiculous negative camber I have.
The compliance bushings were a PITA, but could have been alot easier if I knew what I was doing. Thanks to me not looking up how to use my ball joint remover tool, I bent the ball joint's threads, creating a big fun adventure of its own. That costed me about $90. I smartened up for the next side and didn't incur any extra costs. With the new bushings in place, the car feels tighter and wallows even less.
Time to deal with the expensive stuff I had been putting off, tires and an alignment. Since I work at Goodyear, I got some Goodyear Fuel Maxes, put them in the front and rotated my still-fresh Yokohamas to the back so I can wear in the new tires faster. To protect my investment, and help reduce rolling resistance, I got it aligned as well. Some prior research on Ecomodder suggested very slight toe in for the front and rear wheels of FWD cars. In all, less than $300. Perks of the job
. My initial drive showed that the steering wheel was still centered and the car thankfully still tracks straight. I may have felt a slight improvement in coasting, which will improve even more after the new tires wear in.
My next upcoming ecomod plan for Rarity is a rear undertray, which should offer a decent improvement from what I hear about rear undertrays.