ME_Andy's fleet

[ME_Andy]

I changed the spark plugs in the Cruze today. That was fun and easy. I think the old plugs looked good but maybe a bit on the lean side. I'm sure they could have gone an extra 20k miles or so. The electrode looked almost new but with a coating of ash. The timing belt is coming up next.

I screwed one thing up. Apparently you're not supposed to gap these plugs or it can scrape off some coating and they won't last as long. Oh well, I don't need to keep the car much longer. Another few years, I guess.

Speaking of changing vehicles, I want an electric truck but I don't want to spend $60k. I was watching some videos of Ben Nelson's lithium Ranger conversion and that seems like the easiest path forward. I'll have to keep my eyes open for an EV Ranger for sale. They're rare these days. The timeline to begin this project is about a year or so.

[Piotrsko]

It took $20k to convert my '88 ranger to volt battery power 8 years ago but only a weekend to swap. Should be bit cheaper today since there are more options and I bought only new cutting edge for the time. Up side is that it is basically just an engine swap with a cologne bell housing

Ford made only about 50k E rangers so they are really rare and it's almost the same work to change chemistry on the battery as it is to convert .

[ME_Andy]

That's good to hear! Did you get the parts from EVWest? Got any details or a thread on here I could read?

[Piotrsko]

Never was a fan of EVwest, could buy the listed items for 1/3 less and half the delivery time.

Was such a fast swap, didn't have time to document and I figured most people didn't care about shopping for parts on the internet.

[ME_Andy]

We got a nasty surprise on the Leaf. The electric brake actuator died and it will be $3700+tax to replace. Ouch. I have to say, the Chevy Cruze is aging much better than the Nissan Leaf.

We'll probably trade the Leaf for a Bolt in the next few months.

[Isaac Zachary]

Originally Posted by ME_Andy

We got a nasty surprise on the Leaf. The electric brake actuator died and it will be $3700+tax to replace. Ouch. I have to say, the Chevy Cruze is aging much better than the Nissan Leaf.

We'll probably trade the Leaf for a Bolt in the next few months.

Ouch! Please don't tell me that's true! Car parts just keep getting more expensive and seemingly less reliable!

Just out of curiosity and not knowing of a more tactful way of asking this, but did you do the yearly or bi-yearly brake fluid changes like it says in the manual and this still happened?

[ME_Andy]

I changed the brake fluid once only, in 7 years. I guess that's not amazing.

There's also a voluntary firmware update recall (P5327) that might have fixed it but the Nissan dealership refused to apply it retroactively. WTF

Brakes have some well-known issues on these vehicles. The door handles are also starting to die. Never another Nissan for me.

[ME_Andy]

I don't think the brake fluid would have helped, though. What we experienced was an electrical communication failure, not anything mechanical.

[Isaac Zachary]

Originally Posted by ME_Andy

I changed the brake fluid once only, in 7 years. I guess that's not amazing.

There's also a voluntary firmware update recall (P5327) that might have fixed it but the Nissan dealership refused to apply it retroactively. WTF

Brakes have some well-known issues on these vehicles. The door handles are also starting to die. Never another Nissan for me.

Ya, we had a similar experience with our Nissan Leaf and Nissan. I'm also never getting another Nissan ever again.

[ME_Andy]

I did the first oil change on my Cruze in 17 months. Not bad! The oil life monitor said I could have waited a few more months, but I'll err slightly on the side of caution.

My old standby oil, Castrol Magnatec, went through a rebranding. It also got more expensive and oil in general is getting harder to find. Seems like the overall oil selection has dropped a lot.

I don't really trust Castrol after the rebranding. Is it still the same stuff that tested well for me in the past, or not?

So I went with Valvoline full syn for $27 at Walmart. I'm sure it's fine.

The Cruze now has 92k miles and I've still only ever needed to replace a thermostat.