A note to my future self on replacing my Toyota headlight bulbs

Posted on 2010-05-09 by Brian

So, dude. You need to change your headlight bulb because it burnt out. Sucks to be you. Anyhow, here’s some tips and tricks to make life easier next time.

You need an H220 H4 from eXelite. Costs about $10. If you don’t already have a spare in the glove box, then go buy one now. But having a spare on hand will save a lot of time.
Don’t try and go in through the front. It’s much easier to open the hood and go in through the back.
If you need to change the passenger side bulb then, yeah, you’re going to need to remove the battery. Sorry dude.
See that big, black rubber seal about the size of a CD? That’s what keeps the water and dust and crap out of the headlight assembly. After you have unclipped the cable from the back of the bulb, you need to remove this so you can take the bulb out. Be careful. Don’t tear it.
There’s a little clip setup which keeps the bulb in place. Unclip the top part first, then flip it down.
Now you can take the bulb out.
Do not touch the new bulb
Do not touch the new bulb
Do not touch the new bulb
Put the new bulb in, flip the clip back up, put the black rubber seal back in place, clip the cable back in place and you’re almost done.
Since you’re an uncoordinated dipshit, you’ve already dropped the nuts which keep the battery in place into some inaccessible part of the engine bay. Best way to recover these is to tape one of your Rare Earth Magnets onto a knitting needle and fish for them.
Since you’re a forgetful moron, here’s the code to unlock the anti-theft feature on the radio: 064. It’s the last three digits in the VIN.

So there you have it. Job done. Go wash your hands and bask in your own glory. You deserve it, dude.

Buemi escapes 200mph Shanghai crash unhurt

Posted on 2010-04-19 by Brian

The funny thing is he is still trying to steer after the wheels have come off.

Toro Rosso said the crash had been caused by a failure of the front-right upright, which caused an immediate failure of the same part on the left.

The crash happened with 10 minutes remaining of the first session while Buemi was on only his sixth lap after sitting out the majority of the 90-minute session because of a brake-system leak.

Brilliant car paintjob

Posted on 2010-04-16 by Brian

We saw this car at the Vasse Primary School Fete last weekend. From the outside it’s a regular Ford Falcon station wagon. It’s not until you get up close that you can appreciate the great art which has been applied to it. It’s in the aboriginal style (I’m sure it has a name) where images are created from dots of paint. Every inside surface has been painted, including the engine bay, the engine itself, the interior ceiling, the door handles… every part is covered in brightly coloured dots. It was pretty amazing.

Brian loves lightning storms

Posted on 2010-03-22 by Brian

So, we had an early family home evening tonight. The kids got off school early, and we needed to go to a meeting tonight for their new school they’ll be going to next year. So in between I planned a popcorn and movie night. We watched “Up” by Pixar, which was actually really entertaining. After the movie ended we hurriedly got ready for the meeting and jumped into the car. We noticed that it started raining a little bit, and the radio was talking about severe weather warnings. By the time we got to Mandurah from the rain heavy enough to restrict vision to about 20m and force us to slow down to about 20 km/h.

So we got to the school for the meeting. It was an information night, so we expected a few cars in the car park and a few people to be milling around but there was nobody. Suzanne checked her email again from her phone and worked out she can’t count; the meeting is tomorrow night.

We came home braving flooded roads and broken down cars on the side of the road and for the last hour I’ve been entertained by the most awesome thunder and lightning show I’ve seen in ages, so the night hasn’t been a total bust. I love the sound of thunder, too. It’s so powerful. I love sitting out the front and watching and hearing the show.

Old technology

Posted on 2010-03-10 by Brian

So we caught a ride to a family do from Suzanne’s brother who lives around the corner. He drives a crew cab Toyota ute. I rode shotgun, and the kids ride in the back with Suzanne. Part of the way though our journey, Ashton asks, “What is this? There’s one on the other door too.”

“They, my dear, are window winders. You use them to wind the windows up and down.”

“You mean without a button? Using your muscles?”

How quaint that this is the first time my daughter has seen windows which aren’t raised and lowered with a button, but manually.

A Day’s Fishin’

Posted on 2010-03-07 by Brian

So we took the kids fishing down at the inlet again on the weekend. We didn’t really expect to catch anything. It was more an exercise in keeping the kids occupied and killing time until dinner. Jett managed to catch a nice sized fish of some description. Ashton felt a bit inadequate with her Blowfish. Those little buggers have strong mouths and jaws; they just don’t want to let go of a hook.

There’s also a picture of a Cat Haven vehicle which took my fancy. We saw this at the Mandurah Crab Festival we visited earlier in the day.

My fortieth birthday present: a limo ride

Posted on 2010-01-17 by Brian

I’ve always loved Hummers, especially the first 1992 civilian release of the original military model. It was big, boofy, chunky and said “Don’t mess with me”. I’m not that much of a fan of the H2, and the H3 not cool at all; I would rather push my Toyota than drive an H3. I’ve bought a small collection of Hot Wheels Hummer which Jett has taken over, and I realise that this is the closest I will ever get to owning the real thing.

From the first time I saw it I thought that it’d make a killer limousine. I started seeing them on TV in around 1995, and I thought that if I could get one out here to Perth it’d make a great business and make me oodles of money. Unfortunately I was never in a position to get the idea off the ground. Still I think it took to about 2004 before I first saw a stretch Hummer limo on Perth roads.

Suzanne made me insanely jealous a few weeks ago when her school-mum friends got together as a going-away party night activity when ours and another family left our old suburb. She lauded it over me, too. “Guess where I am?” she texted. And every time we’d see a Hummer on the road after that she’d casually mention “I’ve ridden in one of those, you know”.

But, this ride of hers planted the seed of an idea in her mind. This would make a great 40th birthday present for me. I have an aversion to parties and such, especially those in my honour, so this would be a good low-key affair. It took a few weeks of meticulous planning in secret to pull this off without me knowing. And I am so impressed that neither of our kids divulged the secret. I knew something was up about a week ago, but Suzanne made me promise not to pump them for information. I’m pretty sure I could have made them crack, but I was a good sport and didn’t really apply myself.

So we turned up at her parents place and I find a bunch of family there too. OK, good. I knew this much already. Actually, a few things were going through my mind on the way there… perhaps it was a bungy jump; I even thought she might have somehow gotten me onto the show “Wipeout“, but they probably don’t film in Perth.

Anyhow, the limo pulled up and I must say I was really surprised and happy we drove around Fremantle and Perth eating sushi and listening to cheesy rock music videos. See the photos below

Webber wins the Battle, Button wins the War

Posted on 2009-10-18 by Brian

I didn’t get to see it and I wish I had. The Brazilian Grand Prix has been run and won with Webber winning for the second time in 2009. Good on him. I understand there was some drama in the pits with Kovalainen deciding he liked being refueled so much he took the hoses with him. As he pulled out he sprayed fuel all over Raikkonen, setting him and his car on fire. It all looked a bit Keystone Kops to me.

But the day belonged to Jensen Button. He won 6 of the first 7 races which was too much for Red Bull to make up. Give it another 2 races for the season and I expect that Vettel would have had it. That leaves Abu Dhabi on 1-Nov.

Hamilton’s pit crew costs him a win

Posted on 2009-08-23 by Brian

Nicole Scherzinger’s boyfriend almost made it back-to-back wins, but came second in the European Grand Prix in Valencia. Watch this Youtube video to see how the pit crew cost him about 6 seconds, enough to lose the race. I’m not exactly sure how an F1 GP pit crew works, but as far as I understand the team keeps the tires on the racks in the garage in heat blankets for as long as possible, so they are still toasty warm by the time the get onto the car. These guys who carry the tires out must be called out by another crew member at the right time to allow them to unwrap the tires, carry them out to the pit and be in position ready for the car to arrive. It seems that someone made the call late, and they were walking out just as Hamilton arrived and actually had to move out of the way as they arrived at the same time as the car. It was then a mad scramble to get the blankets off with the mechanics, who had long since removed the old tyres, looking around wondering why the new ones weren’t in place.

At the end of the day, he still gets to go home to Nicole to console him. Not bad for second place.

The race was won by Rubens Barrichello who came in two seconds ahead of Hamilton making him this years fifth unique winner. Webber came in ninth. It’s a win for Jenson Button who stays at the top of the championship standings as he picked up 2 points for 7th and Webber, who was in second place in the standings, picked up none.

European Formula 1 Grand Prix

Posted on 2009-08-21 by Brian

Yay, racers. It’s GP time again this week. I know this image isn’t the Valencia circuit, but it sumarises my thoughts on American motor racing pretty well. NASCAR is a stupid sport. You can’t test a car or a driver by driving around in almost perfect circles. The cars may be somewhat fast, but the pit crews are slow and the spectators are ugly. Compare this to F1 where the cars look and handle great, the pit crews are lightning fast and the spectators and grid girls are attractive, intelligent and discerning.

Too bad Schumacher is not able to compete. It would have been good watching him race again.

So, this is what I'm thinking…

Brian Hoover's Blog

Tag Archives: Cars