So after we got insurance (see previous rant) and spent 40 minutes in a line at the MTO, the car had plates. Temporary, but still, plates! So, like all young (?) people with a new sporty car purchased for cheap we immediately drove it to Canadian Tire. There we got some ‘guaranteed to pass’ in a bottle plus some fluid for the clutch and, ignoring the Check Engine Light, hit the highway. What could go wrong?
Well, surprisingly little, actually. Ok, we had to jump it at a gas station because the battery is toast and I’m pretty sure that’s not in the ‘do’ section of the safety handbook, but other than that it was fine. Oh, except there was a big ‘whoosh’ noise when the boost built up instead of actual acceleration. In fact, it effectively died until the boost gauge went back down. Otherwise it pulled well, shifted well, didn’t overheat, stopped, and all the lights worked. Particularly the CEL. It also didn’t need to be towed home. A qualified success! So we decided to rest on our laurels for a week.
Drove it to HotBits (suspension shop in Orangeville, if you don’t know) on Saturday to see what the professional opinion was on the double-wishbone that our Gen2 Talon has – more on this later – and then went back up to the shop on Sunday. And got a new battery as well. Again without incident! While at the shop we figured out the turbo issue, changed the oil again, and pondered the engineering from beyond the edge of space that is the double-wishbone. Seriously, it is bizarre. We also took the gravel tires off and put the summer street tires back on since we’d be running around, and then went for a beer. That went without incident, more or less. Well, without anything particularly odd for Rally Sputnik, let’s put it that way. Hey, did we mention the turbo worked and it makes pretty respectable power?
The best part is that since it’s an AWD 97, even with the CEL it passed the drive-clean two speed idle sniffer so we were able to get actual, real plates! Ye gods!
So now the question before us is…what to do with the suspension. Yes – what indeed? Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion!