How to: Change out the radiator for a Nissan Frontier.

May 2nd, 2010

Hello and welcome to another exciting episode of: fix your ride. Today we are going to cover how you’d go about replacing a radiator for a 1998 Nissan Frontier. Although you may not own a Nissan Frontier, the lessons presented in reference to radiator replacement is universally applicable to most cars. This issue was selected because I drive a Nissan Frontier, and it just so happens that my radiator decided to explode after just 200,000 miles of use, causing me to have to go out and replace the damn thing. I’ve enclosed a bunch of pictures taken during repair that will be arranged in chronological order. The level of difficulty involved with this process is just slightly harder than that of changing the oil. If you have any mechanical inclination whatsoever, you will do just fine.

Before delving into pictures, make a mental note of the few items listed below for a safer and more enjoyable repair experience: Firstly, before heading out to your favorite store, call to make sure that the radiator that fits your model car is available and in stock.  Secondly, pick up a radiator flush kit to rid any residual coolant in the system and pick up a gallon of coolant for after the installation. Thirdly, be sure that the vehicle has been off for awhile and that all engine components are cool to the touch.

Reverse the disassemble process to make whole your vehicle. Once everything is replaced, fill the new radiator with 50/50 water and antifreeze coolant. The aftermarket radiator that I purchased had a minor defect where the fan box was seated to the ledge. The distance of the rounded-rectangular cut out in the ledge where the pegs from the fan box were to have been inserted were off by 2mm. The 2 mm caused me an extra 20 minutes of improvised sawing to make the thing work. Best of luck with your radiator repair adventures. Feel free to drop a comment with further questions or concerns.

Whizy Fix your ride , ,

Eyjafjallajokull

April 19th, 2010

As you’ve probably heard, most of the air traffic in Northern Europe has been crippled by the Icelandic volcano that erupted last week. Two items of interest sparked my mind when I caught wind of this news: firstly, being stranded while traveling really sucks, but this is probably one of those times when it may actually be legitimate; secondly, how the heck do you pronounce the name of the volcano.
The aviation regulatory agency in Europe is really in a pickle because, on the one hand, you have really angry travelers who do not understand why flights aren’t allowed because of a little dust; on the other hand, you have businesses complaining because they are losing millions in revenue with each passing hour; meanwhile, the effects of prolonged sandblasting of airplanes and jet engines with really course media at 450 miles per hour have never really been field tested, hence their logic for grounding airplanes for “safety” reasons and such unproven science is shaky at best (I want to see a Mythbusters episode on this one.) I feel for the unfortunate travelers who have to endure this untimely natural occurrence, but, for once, am in full support of the scientist’s decision to take a wait-and-see approach on this issue. I enjoy going really fast just as much as the next guy/gal, but if the integrity of the vehicle in which I travel is questionable, or my chances of survival can be unnecessarily compromised, then I can wait – as should most people. For it is much better to be late than never when it comes to life and death.
As for the volcano name, I think it’s pronounced Eh-ya-veh-logue-kh. That’s what I got out of the wiki listening link. Give it a stab and let me know what you come up with.

Whizy News: respun. ,

GMap xml parser error

April 10th, 2010

From time to time, I like to fiddle with the Google Maps API to help me better visualize our world. While working on a project this morning, I learned that the GXml.parse() function used in combination with the markers[i].getAttribute javascript will throw an error if it encounters an ampersand in the xml list. Long story longer, the problem was identified when an entire xml table was not being displayed on the map, and the bug was traced back to the xml, and not the javascript. I’m sure there are ways to validate the input to ensure no special characters exist that will create issues with the program, but that will have to wait for the next revision. For now, just be weary of special characters in your xml data fields if your stuff doesn’t work.

Whizy Uncategorized

Life in a cube

March 30th, 2010

Rocket fuel station.

cubical

Grindstone.

Whizy Uncategorized ,

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