My Life: What's new with me
Getting the new car inspected
Posted by Brian Clifton
Written May 12, 2012 at 15:14
Written May 12, 2012 at 15:14
I thought I got a good buy just from the things I checked mechanically when I bought the S430. I could tell the car needed motor mounts and transmission mounts. Shifting on the 7 speed transmission is nice and smooth. Alignment looks good. Tires are practically brand new. I brought the car to my friend Bud, the owner of MB Motors in Phoenix
Bud gave it a full inspection.
Continue reading this article
Bud gave it a full inspection.
Continue reading this article
Bought a new car: Mercedes-Benz S Class
Posted by Brian Clifton
Written May 10, 2012 at 18:55
Written May 10, 2012 at 18:55
I'm always watching car sales on the internet and got sucked into this one. I love the W220 bodystyle and really was interested in the S55 AMG and the S600.
Continue reading this article
Spring time - Bikes and car repairs
Posted by Brian Clifton
Written March 11, 2012 at 11:38
Written March 11, 2012 at 11:38
With the income tax money in, I paid off a big chunk of debt; always super happy to do that! I also got the wife and I some bicycles and a roof rack for the C300. The roof rack is part# 2048901393; bike holders (two of them) are part# 000890029364. The bikes are 7 speed Cruisers by Electra Bikes.
I definitely need to get in better shape and since the weather has been awesome here in Arizona, we can't wait for them to come in.
Continue reading this article
I definitely need to get in better shape and since the weather has been awesome here in Arizona, we can't wait for them to come in.
Continue reading this article
Living with OCD and Anxiety
Posted by Brian Clifton
Written November 27, 2011 at 01:44
Written November 27, 2011 at 01:44
I've always had a hard time relaxing because my brain doesn't know how to stop working. When I was younger, I could force myself to relax by having a few beers. This worked great for me as a teenager up and through college. I built up enough of a tolerance that I could slam a 12 pack in a 3 hour span and still write complex computer code. It got to a point where I was drinking almost every day. This obviously isn't a great way to live your life and I ended up getting a DUI in 2005 (I wrote about that experience in a previous blog entry, "Life experience: Driving under the influence"). Part of the sentence given to me was attending counseling for a few months. After talking about alcohol for so many hours, drinking lost all of it's appeal and no longer helped me relax.
Without a way to relax, my brain would keep spinning. It gets fixated and stuck on a subject for long periods of time, to the point where I feel physically ill. I would have an upset stomach and feel extremely fatigued all the time. I'd always feel tense and on-edge. These physical symptoms started to affect my social life. I would ditch events with my best friends because I didn't feel good.
Continue reading this article
Without a way to relax, my brain would keep spinning. It gets fixated and stuck on a subject for long periods of time, to the point where I feel physically ill. I would have an upset stomach and feel extremely fatigued all the time. I'd always feel tense and on-edge. These physical symptoms started to affect my social life. I would ditch events with my best friends because I didn't feel good.
Continue reading this article
Money on my mind
Posted by Brian Clifton
Written October 25, 2011 at 21:30
Written October 25, 2011 at 21:30
Recently I've been putting a lot of thought into my finances. I'm doing ok; I'm not neck-deep in debt but I'm not exactly rich either.
I found a great website a while back and I've been following it. It's called Get Rich Slowly.
http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/archives/
The link above goes to the archives, which is the easiest place to start reading from. You can see all the article titles and pick ones that interest you. The most recent entry I've read was the piece about the debit card fee raises coming up soon.
Besides that website, one of the things that got me thinking about money was getting my 401k quarterly statement last week. I saw that I lost over $6,000 last quarter. So even with my contributions, it still lost that much.
I hate the fact that so much of my money goes into a 401k; a fund that, at the end of the day, I really have no control over.
Continue reading this article
I found a great website a while back and I've been following it. It's called Get Rich Slowly.
http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/archives/
The link above goes to the archives, which is the easiest place to start reading from. You can see all the article titles and pick ones that interest you. The most recent entry I've read was the piece about the debit card fee raises coming up soon.
Besides that website, one of the things that got me thinking about money was getting my 401k quarterly statement last week. I saw that I lost over $6,000 last quarter. So even with my contributions, it still lost that much.
I hate the fact that so much of my money goes into a 401k; a fund that, at the end of the day, I really have no control over.
Continue reading this article
Car wash madness
Posted by Brian Clifton
Written October 11, 2011 at 18:34
Written October 11, 2011 at 18:34
I was checking out some online forums after getting back home from work and found this crazy video of a guy supposedly from Macedonia and he's power washing the inside of his brand new 2011 Mercedes-Benz CLS 350 CDI (Click here to read the original article).
The original article mentions the car wash people ignoring the owner's request to wash the inside. So he freaks out, grabs the sprayer and does it himself.
Here's a link to the video...
Continue reading this article
Replaced the windshield washer fluid pump and the oil dipstick
Posted by Brian Clifton
Written September 10, 2011 at 11:50
Written September 10, 2011 at 11:50
The weather has been pretty nasty here in Arizona... Hot weather and some rain. Not real rain though, just enough rain to get the sand to stick to your car.
In an attempt to wash my windshield, I figured I'd just use the wipers and squirt some fluid on. Nothing happened. I turned my headlamps on and tried again; this engages the headlamp cleaning system (yes, there are baby wipers on my headlights, and there is a pump that squirts water on them to clean them). This worked, yet the regular one didn't.
If you pop the hood, the reservoir for the washer fluid is on your left. You'll see two metal pipes coming out of some white plastic, with an electrical wire on top. I checked the obvious things; looking for leaks, using a pin and cleaning the holes in the part that dispenses the fluid (on the hood). No luck.
I pulled the reservoir out and noticed there are two pumps: one for headlamps, one for windshield.
Continue reading this article
In an attempt to wash my windshield, I figured I'd just use the wipers and squirt some fluid on. Nothing happened. I turned my headlamps on and tried again; this engages the headlamp cleaning system (yes, there are baby wipers on my headlights, and there is a pump that squirts water on them to clean them). This worked, yet the regular one didn't.
If you pop the hood, the reservoir for the washer fluid is on your left. You'll see two metal pipes coming out of some white plastic, with an electrical wire on top. I checked the obvious things; looking for leaks, using a pin and cleaning the holes in the part that dispenses the fluid (on the hood). No luck.
I pulled the reservoir out and noticed there are two pumps: one for headlamps, one for windshield.
Continue reading this article
Fixing the rear view mirror
Posted by Brian Clifton
Written August 20, 2011 at 00:58
Written August 20, 2011 at 00:58
Last month I noticed my rear view mirror started to wobble. I've taken it off before when I replaced some of the buttons in the dome light, so I went ahead and pulled it off again.
To pull the mirror off, slowly and carefully pull the mirror down and diagonally to either the left or right. If you think you can't safely do it, grab a screwdriver to help pop it off (it's spring loaded). After the mirror pops off, you need to disconnect the wires that go to it.
Everything about the mirror I've found calls the back piece the "clam shell". You can take this part off by carefully pushing down on the top and then the tabs on the front should come loose. Once I took it apart, I noticed two plastic tabs had broke inside.
Continue reading this article
To pull the mirror off, slowly and carefully pull the mirror down and diagonally to either the left or right. If you think you can't safely do it, grab a screwdriver to help pop it off (it's spring loaded). After the mirror pops off, you need to disconnect the wires that go to it.
Everything about the mirror I've found calls the back piece the "clam shell". You can take this part off by carefully pushing down on the top and then the tabs on the front should come loose. Once I took it apart, I noticed two plastic tabs had broke inside.
Continue reading this article
Summer 2011
Posted by Brian Clifton
Written August 19, 2011 at 22:31
Written August 19, 2011 at 22:31
It's definitely been a while since I've updated. Both cars are doing great. The C300 barely needs any maintenance, it's been a great car. The SL500 has needed a few things done.
1) There have been issues starting the car for at least a year. When you turn the key, it didn't always start; it would just make clicking sounds. If you kept trying, it would eventually work. My friend Bud had showed me that sometimes a fuel pressure regulator can cause this. Sure enough, it was bad so I had it replaced. The problem went away for a bit but came back. I did a lot of research and thought it might be a crankshaft position sensor, which seems to be a common issue on the M113 SLs... but those usually fail when it's hot outside and temperature didn't make a difference in my case. I brought it to my friend Bud's shop and he found out it was a bad fuel pump; problem solved!
2) Replaced front brakes.
3) The Michelin Pilot Sport 2's I got back in April 2009 finally wore out. I put almost 30k miles on them which is pretty good for staggered performance tires. PS2s weren't available this time, so I went with Pilot Sport A/S Plus. They're not as soft and it's noticeable... but they were also 300 dollars cheaper.
4) Even after the work done on the panoramic roof, I was still having fitment issues. I brought the roof into Mercedes-Benz of Chandler and had them run through the "Glass roof adjustment procedure" (on the service DVD, it's 77-430). It fits great now; no noise and no water leakage when going through the car wash.
5) The doors used to lock when you got the car moving. For some reason that stopped happening. I did a lot of searching and then fellow BenzWorld member RKH described a procedure that's in the owner's manual. You get in the car, turn it on, and close the doors. If you hold down the lock button for 5 seconds, it'll enable the auto-lock feature. If you hold down the unlock button for 5 seconds, it disables the auto-lock feature. It got disabled somehow and sure enough, holding it for for 5 seconds fixed it right up.
6) Something inside the rear view mirror broke and it became wobbly and almost unusable. I pulled it off, took it apart and noticed some plastic bits were broken. It took me a while, but I found a solution.
http://www.brianclifton.com/blogs/cars/r129-fixing-rear-view-mirror
It's been hot here in Arizona this summer. When it gets to be around 120 degrees outside, having a black on black car with an all glass roof is a pain in the ass, but I still love the car.
1) There have been issues starting the car for at least a year. When you turn the key, it didn't always start; it would just make clicking sounds. If you kept trying, it would eventually work. My friend Bud had showed me that sometimes a fuel pressure regulator can cause this. Sure enough, it was bad so I had it replaced. The problem went away for a bit but came back. I did a lot of research and thought it might be a crankshaft position sensor, which seems to be a common issue on the M113 SLs... but those usually fail when it's hot outside and temperature didn't make a difference in my case. I brought it to my friend Bud's shop and he found out it was a bad fuel pump; problem solved!
2) Replaced front brakes.
3) The Michelin Pilot Sport 2's I got back in April 2009 finally wore out. I put almost 30k miles on them which is pretty good for staggered performance tires. PS2s weren't available this time, so I went with Pilot Sport A/S Plus. They're not as soft and it's noticeable... but they were also 300 dollars cheaper.
4) Even after the work done on the panoramic roof, I was still having fitment issues. I brought the roof into Mercedes-Benz of Chandler and had them run through the "Glass roof adjustment procedure" (on the service DVD, it's 77-430). It fits great now; no noise and no water leakage when going through the car wash.
5) The doors used to lock when you got the car moving. For some reason that stopped happening. I did a lot of searching and then fellow BenzWorld member RKH described a procedure that's in the owner's manual. You get in the car, turn it on, and close the doors. If you hold down the lock button for 5 seconds, it'll enable the auto-lock feature. If you hold down the unlock button for 5 seconds, it disables the auto-lock feature. It got disabled somehow and sure enough, holding it for for 5 seconds fixed it right up.
6) Something inside the rear view mirror broke and it became wobbly and almost unusable. I pulled it off, took it apart and noticed some plastic bits were broken. It took me a while, but I found a solution.
http://www.brianclifton.com/blogs/cars/r129-fixing-rear-view-mirror
It's been hot here in Arizona this summer. When it gets to be around 120 degrees outside, having a black on black car with an all glass roof is a pain in the ass, but I still love the car.
My new Glock 19, generation 4
Posted by Brian Clifton
Written August 13, 2011 at 14:10
Written August 13, 2011 at 14:10
I just recently bought a Glock 19 from Caswells shooting range in Mesa, AZ. I love it so far; extremely easy to take apart and clean and it shoots great.
Continue reading this article
Continue reading this article