I've been attempting to figure out why the idle stabilizer valve on my car doesn't seem to be working. What it does is stabilizes the idle at cold temperatures. Without it, the car wants to stall, idling around 400rpm when the engine is first turned on in the cold. The Valve either allows more air in or cuts the air supply to adjust the idle speed higher until the engine is warm. My car idles far too low in the winter time, which is in direct opposition to the other 944 in the driveway which idles stable at 1000 even after not being started for two months. I'm exploring the possibilities why.

I haven't really driven the car since I put the headlights back in due to my beginning of college. I bike to class and back every day since it's only 2-3 miles and parking on campus is atrocious. Anyway, I drove at night for the first time since working on the headlights and noticed that I had a hard time actually seeing the road. I need to elevate them a little bit apparently to give myself another 10-15 feet of sight. I still have to work on the clearance issues though. More to come as it happens.

I managed to track down the culprit, or at least one culprit, of the non-start issues to my battery terminals. They're corroding much faster than I've ever seen before. The slightest bit of moisture in the air and I have lumps of corrosion forming. After a few days of this, there's enough corrosion buildup on the terminals and posts to halt the flow of steady current back to the battery. I had Advance Auto clean the posts and I did the best job I could on the terminals. The dash reads 13V again and the car has started ever since. Let's hope it's just that.

Just when you think everything is going great, another kick in the shin. The car's been running great for weeks and weeks. I think it's a record actually. I started to gain some confidence in its ability to be a daily driver. In fact, I hit the milestone of 134,000 as I pulled into WalMart.

But as I got into the car today to go to the bank, I turned the key and got nothing. I thought maybe it was my negative battery terminal coming loose again. I cleaned up all the corrosion around the terminals, but nothing fixed it. Then I realized I had power with the key turned, something that doesn't happen in the terminal comes loose. No, this time, my battery read 9.1V. It's currently charging via the house. However, either I have another parasitic drain, the battery isn't holding its charge, or the alternator isn't working, something I don't want to get into (although changing the alternator isn't a bad job on this car).

I spent the good deal of yesterday taking apart the headlights once again to (re)install the headlight covers that are supposed to surround the enclosed beam, keeping dirt and debris out. They'd been missing since I bought the car. I secured a pair of them last year but never installed them due to the headlight clearance issues existing on the left side of the car that I fixed last week.

Read on for the story.

It's been one of the longest projects this car has had. It's been one of my pet peeves. It's probably cost me a few dollars in gasoline over the years due to higher air resistance. The headlights were rubbing and I couldn't close them. Today, however, I managed to finally fix them. Behold - working headlights.

More about the fix inside...

Didn't take too long, other than finding a 24mm socket and extension long enough to get the steering wheel off. Instrument cluster came out in 5 minutes. I got to the odometer but it wasn't obvious what had gone wrong. The worm gear wouldn't turn though. I wound it back a little then pushed it forward and something snapped back into place. I wonder if the gears on the teeth were just rubbing or dirty. I don't know. But it's working now and has been for the last 30 miles.

Took the car in for its annual inspection today. No problems at all. They had some discussion on whether or not the license plate was legal by being where it was since it wasn't being lit by the under-the-trunk bulbs. But they put their heads together and saw the wires coming out of it and turned on the headlights. That put the end to that discussion.

However, on the way home I noticed that my odometer has stopped working sometime in the past week. I reset the tripmeter but that didn't free up whatever is binding it. I'll have to remove the steering wheel one of these weeks and take a look at it.