Ryan's '10 Infiniti G37S 6MT Sedan

[ildd]

Spoiler: R.I.P. Mercedes

Where shall we begin...

The car was originally purchased from CarMax in 2004 with 30k miles. For some reason it had AMG rims from a C43 AMG. Other than that, it was 100% stock when bought. From 2004- June 2012, my mom only put 25k miles on the car; meaning when I started driving, it had 55K miles, and remained stock except for the rims(which were changed to MB Classic's in 2007 because my mom hit a massive pothole that literally cracked 1 rim in half and dented another). Conspiracy theorists say Mercedes are unreliable, but they are wrong. Kind of.

This part is rather boring so I'd skip below this.
So I guess we can start when I got my permit, in June of 2011. I was 2 months shy of turning 16, and to be completely honest I didn't like the car. I thought that the steering took too much effort, as did the brakes and throttle. I thought it would break down every 5th time I start it up. I thought it was "a girls car." I preferred my dad's 2009 Accord to learn to drive than the Mercedes. In fact, I only drove the Mercedes 4 times in between the time I got my permit and the time I took my license test (March 2012). Lo and behold, my dad sold his Accord 1 week before I took my test, leaving me 7 days to master the handling of my car, which was like a sunny day compared to a thunderstorm night. Completely different, to say the least. Ended up getting an 88 on my test because I failed to signal while merging with nobody within a 1/2 mile of me... whatever DMV.

So I got my license now and can go and do whatever I want. Lets skip ahead to, say... December 2012. No tickets, no accidents, no reliability problems at all. And then this happened.

what were you expecting, a crash? trololol. Yea, my friends thought it would be funny to do this because I took the left truck's spot (at my high school, they grouped cars by affiliation. All the baseball kids in this part of the parking lot). Luckily, my car doesn't have folding rear seats, so I had the fortunate event of waiting until 8 PM until I could leave (both friends are VERY good at baseball and we have our own batting cage. I tried to steal 1 of their keys. I got hit by a ball. MANY TIMES.)
At this point in the car's life, all that had been done was a 25% window tint (which was actually in Dec. '11), which is the darkest legal in Texas. Quality install, nice guy too.

2013 was a good year for the car. Firstly, I got xenon/HID headlights. The stock headlights on this thing were absolutely AWFUL. By far the absolute worst I have ever used. Now they're the best... a little after that, I got clear side markers. You know, those little orange lights on the front bumper that look retarded and out of place. Then in November I got new tires(Yokohama YK580). In addition, the car actually got drove! I put about 4,000 miles on the car in 2013...compared to the 6,000 the previous 3 years combined. I don't have to pay for the gas (premium, by the way) yet.

At this point, this is actually my most favorite car to drive now. I've come to learn "hard" steering gives you much more control and peace of mind. It's the quietest car I've ever drove(as in, blocking the outside noise). It has the 2nd best stock sound system I've heard. It has a cassette tape player so I could plug my phone into it(which is broke now) and a 6-CD changer. As a whole, you feel so safe in it, starting from how solid the doors close; which sounds stupid, I know. It's slow as hell with a 163 HP 2.6L V6, and I only get 19 MPG going to college at best. That 3400 LB doesn't help...but, on the bright side, it doesn't feel any different at 100 mph than it does 60 mph.

So, without further adieu,

Spoiler: PICTURE TIIIIMMMMEEEE

Spoiler: Well the Miata's gone too

Yo, click here for Miata!

Le G37S!

 

[ildd]

Spoiler: R.I.P. Mercedes

• 18/19x8.5 rims. Unsure of which ones. Definitely 5-spoke though, single or double per spoke. Current ones are 7 years old and my mom wasn't the best of drivers... tons of road rash and scratches.
• H&R adjustable Coilovers. Front would go down roughly 1.5 inches, back would go down roughly 1 inch. As much as I want to do this, it's the most expensive and wouldn't serve as great a purpose.
• Front AMG Bumper with projector fog lights. My bumper has a TON of chips/scratches in it and the right fog light is broken, so... yea. Plus they look badass.
• Possibly new windshield; has a bunch of dirt in it... very annoying and distracting. Already tried steel wool.
• Double-Din Headunit. Sound quality will be even better, plus I can watch Madagascar while on the highway! not really And I can use my phone again to play music/answer calls. Looking at the Pioneer BHS-5600. DONE, PUT IN
• Fix the sagging headliner currently being held up with thumbtacks.
• Find the annoying rattling(inside) I hear when I'm going at 40+ on an average road/highway. Something on the left side... FRONT LEFT SPEAKER
• Fix the cupholder done
• Vinyl wrap the roof with gloss black
• Fix the rear left door. Plastic piece fell off that registers it as "locked," currently an old air freshener takes its place. FIXED
• Replace left side mirror. The "auto-dim" feature broke while it was more than fully dimmed... 5 years ago. Euro-spec mirror ftfw!
• Fix rear sunshade because it A. Won't go down and B. rattles like crazy Apparently fixed itself

Nothing mechanically needs to be fixed!

Record of Events:

• Some time in 2004- car was bought
• June, 2007- Car was rear-ended by a truck. Got new bumper and trunk; no structural damage. Trunk automatically opens now.
• Late 2007?- New rims/tires after hitting massive pothole which shattered 1 rim and dented another. Somehow suspension is unharmed.
• August 6th, 2013- car reached 60,000 miles
• March 11th, 2014- Car was serviced for the first time since 2009.
• March 11th-12th, 2014- Transmission fluid was flushed and got new gasket, brake fluid was flushed, got new rear shocks
• March 13th, 2014- Finally fixed the broken cupholder and sliding door over it.
• June 29th, 2014- Put in the DD Radio all by myself
• July 28th, 2014- FINALLY replaced the mirror Safety points +82

Random Facts:
Tire size: 225/45/17. Yokohama YK580 tires. MB Classic Wheels rims; no connection to Mercedes, the company is named MB and the rim name is Classic Wheels...
It has a rear sunshade that pops up. Doesn't really work...
It has 2 cup holders in the front. Both of which are inconvenient.
Ash tray is used to hold change. Currently no quarters or dimes.
My cassette tape-to-AUX is stuck in the player. Only way to get it out is to remove radio... Both taken out for new HU
It has brakes that emit brake dust that requires the front rims to be cleaned by weekly.
I you hold the unlock key while standing 1 inch outside the door, all the windows will roll down. Sometimes. Usually it doesn't work.

Mazda Miata MX-5
Future Mods/Fixes...hopefully:

Record of Events:

Random Facts

 

[Doog]

The littlest Merc looks good in its old age! A friend of mine has one of these, an '06 C230 that I park next to daily, but it's perpetually dirty, not to mention the scrapes and the fact that the front bumper's hanging. From my limited experience with it, it feels like a pretty well-built car. The seats felt pretty nice as well. I like that wide speedometer, too.

 

[ildd]

The littlest Merc looks good in its old age! A friend of mine has one of these, an '06 C230 that I park next to daily, but it's perpetually dirty, not to mention the scrapes and the fact that the front bumper's hanging. From my limited experience with it, it feels like a pretty well-built car. The seats felt pretty nice as well. I like that wide speedometer, too.

C230s are more popular than both c240's and c320's, but 2006 has engine issues.
Thanks, I try and keep it clean at all times. I agree, the seats are very comfy, both sitting in traffic and going for road trips, as long as you're not in the back

 

[Aquarelle]

Is it just me, or does the front camber look slightly off? I feel like it needs just the slightest degree of negative camber to make it look right

Very mice merc 👍 I'd normally say "Shame about the lack of manual" but frankly in a luxury car like this there isn't much point

 

[ildd]

@UrieHusky I Got the wheels realigned 2 days ago, I hope it's right
The manual transmissions for these cars suck, so I've heard from everyone On the forums. Worse than a 1998 Corolla...
Thanks 👍

 

[ildd]

Added 3 more pictures to the OP. From here on out they will be new posts, starting with this:
Put my VIN into a decoder and it spewed back all of this. Some words got cut off...Obviously some of it is wrong now.

 

[ildd]

Here's what I would imagine my car looking like if I had money. Minus the AMG bumper...

 

[ildd]

Car has seen some miles this past week and will see another 120 tomorrow(I average 80 a week). This is what 1 week and 200 miles of brake dust looks like...it's ruining my life.

Supposedly there's a brake set that virtually minimizes brake dust for my car but I haven't looked into it too much. But, 3 minutes of cleaning isn't that bad. (Before tire gloss)

Every scratch is from my mom

 

[Harry6784]

You should look into getting some ceramic brake pads, they're practically dustless and provide excellent stopping power 👍

 

[ildd]

You should look into getting some ceramic brake pads, they're practically dustless and provide excellent stopping power 👍

Sounds good 👍 I haven't spent too much time researching brakes, but when (if) I get new rims, i'll most likely upgrade the rotors and get slotted, along with ceramic pads. I don't think the rotors have been changed since 2009.

 

[ildd]

Bad news... I was going to a Cars and Coffee (first time in 3 years; never going again, giant PITA and everyone's a d-bag) and about 5 miles away from the destination, I felt this huge loss in power. I immediately knew 2 cylinders just went down. Struggled to keep 60 mph, could not overtake a semi truck in front of me...

So I kept driving. 3 miles after that, I was off the highway... and 2 more cylinders went down. So at this point, I'm driving in a city with a V2 engine that makes about 45-50 hp. 0-35 time of about 25 seconds. Was (understandably) afraid of driving anymore, let alone putting the accelerator down. So I get into the parking lot, and a stop sign comes. Car stalls. Completely. Dash says "Check Battery" I told the car "🤬 you dumb 🤬 car, it's not the battery." Started it back up and everything was normal. Parked, said "🤬 it, it's time to explore the world of Houston." Come back 2 hours later and I find a C3 Corvette parked next to me, so that made me feel a little better...

(also worth noting I was driving with a white C7 up until MAYDAY struck. The driver recognized me and asked what happened. I told him the above but was unsure what the actual problem was.)


So I leave, everything is still back to normal. No sign of power loss on the highway, but the CEL was still on. I bring it to a local shop that does most of the work and asked them to run a diagnostic test to see if any error codes come up. "Misfire on cylinders 1, 2, 4, and 6." So they're replacing all 12 spark plugs(THE LAST ONES WERE OEM AND 12 YEARS OLD, WTF PARENTS), cleaning throttle body, and clean the fuel injectors. Spark plugs are, of course, platinum, and 2 per cylinder=$150 in spark plugs... +labor...+diagnostic fee...It's a lot. I told my dad I could easily replace the spark plugs but my parents won't let me do any work to my car. Whatever. Their $$$ loss.
And I'm going to the Astros game tonight, in my mom's car now... which will probably get broken in to. Oh well.

 

[Harry6784]

Curious to see what the old plugs looked like. Also you can go to Autozone and they'll check codes for you free of charge 👍

Oh look a C3

 

[ildd]

Curious to see what the old plugs looked like. Also you can go to Autozone and they'll check codes for you free of charge 👍

Oh look a C3

I talked to the mechanic who did the scan and he showed me a plug that he also took out(for inspection).
It wasn't very pretty . If they keep them instead of throwing away, i'll ask if I can keep one and post a pic.

edit- oh, I didn't even see that a C3 was parked next to me until after I got in my car. I saw the Shelby next to it though. IDK what happened there

 

[ildd]

In light of @Doog throwing out everything wrong with the outside of his car, here's what's wrong with mine.

Spoiler

#1. The trunk. Though improved, it's still screwed up. I don't really know how all these scratches got on it, but it happened some time in the past two years. I know a stray cat had something to do with it, but not all (I have no idea how a catgot in our garage.) In February I sanded and slightly filled the right side of the trunk, but not the left side. It looks better, but I have to put a fair amount of wax on it (as you can see, it is a greenish color before wax).
before

After

#2. Drivers side doors. I might have accidentally dropped my bike handles onto the door when I was a kid... scratches went all the way to the metal. I filled them with touchup paint in 2011 to prevent rust. Not pretty, but definitely better than big black scratches.

#3. Mirrors. They are very prone to chipping/scratching because they're not really protected by anything.

#4. Hood/bumper. As shown in the OP, my bumper is screwed. I don't really care because I plan on getting a new AMG bumper anyways, but the hood... it's bad also. Full of rock chips and a dent that has been there since forever. I gave parts of it the same treatment as the trunk, but I didn't take a close up pic of those areas.

5. Passenger door. Door handle is messed up due to a prank (see OP) and the scratches are just assholes who don't know how to open a door.

And here's the greatest water repellent ever in action.

And all of my cleaning products I use on a regular basis. (not including cloths or sponges)

 

[Harry6784]

Is rain-x really as good as they advertise when it comes to repelling water? When it's raining hard I have trouble seeing out of the rear of my car due to the accumulation of water droplets...

 

[ildd]

Is rain-x really as good as they advertise when it comes to repelling water? When it's raining hard I have trouble seeing out of the rear of my car due to the accumulation of water droplets...

What Rain-X does is makes the rain bead up and stop it from running, and keeps it from streaking. With that said, I put it on my back window the first time and it made it much harder to see it the back. Easier in the front (even with no wiping) but with the back, just slush your hand around the window before you stay driving. That's what I did and it was fine.

The first time I applied it to the windshield, there was a somewhat heavy storm the next day and I barely used my wipers. And when I did, there was no streaking(there was slight streaking before).
For $5 it helps so much.

 

[Ronald6]

Yes, rain-X is as good as advertised. It's basically a film of wax on your windshield. I'm not sure how it would work on a real window. I wouldn't use it if you have/use a rear defogger. In Oregon rain-X is a must, I rarely use my windshield wipers while its raining, usually only after to clear away the excess. Spray from other vehicles can be a problem but rain-X helps with that also, just not as much as rain.

My 2 cents.

 

[ildd]

This is basically the only place in my town with a decent backdrop/scenery. It doesn't even fit my car but it's awesome.

 

[Doog]

View attachment 144679

This shot, this shot right here. This is a good shot.

This is basically the only place in my town with a decent backdrop/scenery. It doesn't even fit my car but it's awesome.

No golf courses, parks, lakes or rural areas?

 

[ildd]

,

This shot, this shot right here. This is a good shot.



No golf courses, parks, lakes or rural areas?

Yes, but membership required.
Yes, but no cars allowed.
Yes, but No.

 

[Doog]

,

Yes, but membership required.
Yes, but no cars allowed.
Yes, but No.

wtf Houston y u so inconvenient.

The golf courses here ain't care if you use their parking lots, as long as you don't stay too long. The lakes are treated more like parks, but you can usually use the parking lots of adjacent businesses to your advantage. The deserty areas I've photographed are usually public (free) parks, too. Neighborhoods near golf courses (unless they're gated, screw gates) are a good location, too. Nicer business complexes are almost always empty on the weekends.

If Houston doesn't have any of those either, then oh crap.

 

[ildd]

There was a high-class looking building not too far from me but they had the parking lot entrances blocked off. We don't really have any lakes other than when you first enter the town...
There's a couple golf courses but one is blocked off and the other has a small parking lot and I wouldn't be able to park like a dumbass for good pics

 

[ildd]

It's been a while since I had to park my car in direct sunlight for an extended period of time. Today, I had to do such a thing (from 9am to 4 pm) and the typical allergies showed up.

Well, actually it didn't show up; my dash LCD screen doesn't operate when the internal temperature is above 90F. Additionally, something melted and the walls oozed green slime something "melted" in the little compartment under my radio (see op) and it was just a sticky gross mess. Luckily it only spread to the surrounding plastic and not the wood trim. The only thing I had in the compartment was receipts, so I would have to assume that ink bled off the paper but that doesn't really make sense to me.

So I think that's a sign from the Car Gods giving me the OK to spend my first paycheck on the Pioneer BHS-5600

Oh, and the little fella is almost at 65,000 miles. Probably next week.

 

[ildd]

Ironically, my car hit 65,000 miles at 1:37 pm. In 24-hour Tine, that's 13:37. In internet form, that's elite. According to my calculations, I have put just under 10,000 miles on the car.

Here's to you, you silver tank you.

 

[ildd]

Now that I've finally got a job (well, it's been two weeks but you know) I have money to spend. I'm very confident that the first thing i'll do to the car is to get the double-din HU I've been longing for.
I made $200 after taxes from two weeks ago, i'll get about $220 from last week (that will be here next Monday) so i'll probably order everything later this week. I'm kind of sad at all the "extra stuff" I have get (see below) but it will absolutely be worth it.


For those interested-
Pioneer_AVH_5600BHS Head Unit (go kinda big or go home amirite)
W203_Install_Kit don't worry, others have bought it. It's good.
E_Brake_Bypass so my roadtrip buddies can watch Madagascar while I drive
AXXCESS_AWSC So I can use my steering wheel buttons (safety (and convenience) first mis amigos)
Possibly a rear view camera but I'm leaning towards a "no"
No reason to buy GPS module because it will double the price and it's already on my phone...
And another $100 for pro installation because I'm afraid of wires

Total Pros-
Bluetooth calling
Can stop relying on ripped CD's and get back on that phone swag (rip cassette tape to aux cable that broke off in my radio)
Sound quality will go up roughly 33% assuming I fix rear right speaker
Looks cool
Will make the car look much newer (which doesn't bother me, but it might for others)
Will finally be able to charge my damn phone while I drive
HD radio
Pandora
other stuff
etc

Total Cons-
Due to Pioneer being dummuts, I can't mirror my phone to the HU. Meh.
$$$
R.I.P. 6-CD changer and already-dead cassette player
R.I.P. ****ty stock radio (seriously it has some of the worst reception in a stock car, but yet the sound system is the best I've heard... wat)
Apparently I can't turn down the brightness so at night it may get distracting

Wrap up-WHOOOOO


edit- just looked it up, OEM rear right speaker is only $36, I may get that too. I'll probably wait and see if it's still troublesome after new HU install.

 

[Harry6784]

Don't be afraid of wires

 

[ildd]

Don't be afraid of wires

Well it's actually more of "I don't want to buy a solder, or year or my doctor (which I've already done once." From what I've heard and seen it's not even hard but uggghhh

 

[ildd]

hree things i'd like to post-
1. @Harry6784 I just realized my last post went full retard. I meant to post "I don't want to tear out my center console again and buy a solder." Sorry

2. Realized I never posted a picture of my headlights in action. From last night.

 

[ildd]

Soon

*took sticker off (top left)