apawlak75
Members
So this has been a very very busy couple of days with no end in sight. I'm working a 6 day 70 hour work week and squeezing in car work where I can.
If anyone read my last posts I said I was having alternator problems and was shopping around. My regular shop quoted me 280£ parts and labor and a part store here on base told me they could order me a new one from the states for 565$ (350£)... So I kept looking and last Thursday I bought a Denso re-manufactured alternator off Amazon.com for 170$ (105£.) I ordered off Amazon because I had 50$ in gift cards which brought it to 120$ (75£.) They also have the fastest shipping to APO's (American Post Offices overseas); I ordered it Thursday at 1130GMT and picked it up from the APO at 1100GMT Monday! My buddy came over Monday night and after a couple of beers and some intense internet searching for a belt diagram we got it installed. I'm very proud of myself, this is by far the biggest car repair I've ever done myself and saved myself 205£!
So that was Monday - on Tuesday my Xcarlink finally came. I ordered it last Monday with guaranteed next day UK shipping... oh well. So I spent the evening doing an install and it turned out great. I've read about people mounting it and routing the wires all sorts of ways but I kinda did my own thing. I took a 22mm wood bit and drilled through the pocket with the hinged cover on the front and installed a 22mm rubber grommet. I then ran the iPhone connecter through that hole into that pocket so you can tuck it in there and close the cover up. I then used a nice big piece of 3M double-sided tape and some zip ties to secure the Xcarlink to the top of the pocket. I'm very pleased with the Xcarlink btw, it works just as advertised. I'll post pictures of my setup soon.
Now that that's all done I've got two more things to get done in the next few weeks.
Last Saturday I ordered a set of HID's for my low-beams and a set for my fogs. 35w 6000k slim-ballast JLM Premiums for the low-beams and 35w 3000k slim-ballast JLM Premiums for the fogs. I also ordered these from the states because I have a buddy who sells them for a very decent price. I think I paid 130$ (80£) with shipping and I'm very excited to get them (whenever that is :lol
Once that's done I'll be taking the Tourer to a good shop for an all around tint job, but more about that later.
If anyone read my last posts I said I was having alternator problems and was shopping around. My regular shop quoted me 280£ parts and labor and a part store here on base told me they could order me a new one from the states for 565$ (350£)... So I kept looking and last Thursday I bought a Denso re-manufactured alternator off Amazon.com for 170$ (105£.) I ordered off Amazon because I had 50$ in gift cards which brought it to 120$ (75£.) They also have the fastest shipping to APO's (American Post Offices overseas); I ordered it Thursday at 1130GMT and picked it up from the APO at 1100GMT Monday! My buddy came over Monday night and after a couple of beers and some intense internet searching for a belt diagram we got it installed. I'm very proud of myself, this is by far the biggest car repair I've ever done myself and saved myself 205£!
So that was Monday - on Tuesday my Xcarlink finally came. I ordered it last Monday with guaranteed next day UK shipping... oh well. So I spent the evening doing an install and it turned out great. I've read about people mounting it and routing the wires all sorts of ways but I kinda did my own thing. I took a 22mm wood bit and drilled through the pocket with the hinged cover on the front and installed a 22mm rubber grommet. I then ran the iPhone connecter through that hole into that pocket so you can tuck it in there and close the cover up. I then used a nice big piece of 3M double-sided tape and some zip ties to secure the Xcarlink to the top of the pocket. I'm very pleased with the Xcarlink btw, it works just as advertised. I'll post pictures of my setup soon.
Now that that's all done I've got two more things to get done in the next few weeks.
Last Saturday I ordered a set of HID's for my low-beams and a set for my fogs. 35w 6000k slim-ballast JLM Premiums for the low-beams and 35w 3000k slim-ballast JLM Premiums for the fogs. I also ordered these from the states because I have a buddy who sells them for a very decent price. I think I paid 130$ (80£) with shipping and I'm very excited to get them (whenever that is :lol
Once that's done I'll be taking the Tourer to a good shop for an all around tint job, but more about that later.
