ArmyofOne

double post...oops! :chairshot:

using my VA loan is NOT an option, this is my first home and wont be my last, there will be kids in my future eventually. I only get ONE VA loan, and its gonna be used to buy our house for my 20 year mark in the army, when im getting ready to retire from the service.

:blink: :wacko: my head is spinning right now lol...the housing area here is fairly stable, but i dont want to do those weird mortgages i want a standard 15 year mortgage. my credit scores are all 3 in the low-mid 700's. i guess i just really have to research to find out whats best. we cant do anyhthing yet, we dont have enough of a down payment, it would be nice to get in for no money down, but is that the best idea? i know i was gonna do it on the Matrix till i saw what it would do to the principal on the loan... my head hurts now... :cries:

this is why im asking these things... i currently have saved about $1,000, but i can have up to $5,000 in a few months, not much i know, but i dont need much of a house either...just a small one lol.

I change coolant once a year, but thats probably overkill, im just picky about the maintenance on my cars. How "hard" are the shifts? was the fluid any color other than cherry red before it was flushed? Im not sure if you can use Dexron or if it has to be toyota Type III or IV, but if it does have to be that, you need to get the regular Dexron III out of there now, or you will be buying a new tranny very soon. I know my wifes matrix has to have toyota type IV, BUT, my wife and I's matrix XR is a FAR cry from an LS430...no matter how you slice it, even though its fully loaded.

First time homebuyer here, and i need advice...thinsg to watch out for, etc etc. and is it a sound investment? my wife and i are really tossing the idea around, and we are almost positive we want to do it. now where do we start? thanks. Also, FWIW, I am in no hurry to do this and want to do it right. I have awesome credit, and my wife and i are lookin in our area, we found a 2112 sq ft, 3 bdr 1 bath in watertown NY that we really like, for $46,250, <_< not sure f thats a good thing or bad. it was built in 1920, newly renovated with new siding, roof, windows, updated piping in the 80's (copper) modern wiring, meets all city codes and standards...im wondering why its so cheap...? we are prepared to spend ~$800-$1000 a month on a mortgage, including taxes and ins...

Agreed, waste of money...

I believe he is saying the drilled a hole in his rocker panel, or im his support structure behind the door, near the hinge on the a/b pillars. if this is the case, then simply sanding and filling and painting is a perfectly acceptable solution. paintless dent repair however, never is, as you can clearly see. LOL. I always prefer to do something right. and PDR is one of those things that is almost never gonna be right. its only suitable for LARGE surface area repairs, like hail damage, where an entire roof panel needs repaired. doing spot repairs with PDR is EXTREMELY Noticable, because its so hard to do correctly. i can usually spot it from a mile away.

Still...cant...stop...rollling...my sides...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH ok seriously, yeah i read all 8 pages, and i gotta tell you like many of these guys, i miss high school. i didnt have a good time, so if i could do it again, knowing what i know now, i would have done things MUCH differently. i too had the problem of always being the boy thats a friend and never the boyfriend, i hated that. but i was such a nice guy. i dont take advantage of people, even to this day. most guys would, but guys like you and i dont use a girls sadness to get s*x. i dont know any other way to be but nice. im not capable of being an *BLEEP* usually, so i get SW03ES to do it for me! LMAO... oh god, I looked...at the pic of fred savage...here i go...again, cant stop....sides hurt....!!!

BWAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sorry den, im not laughing at you, im laughin at...at...that pic...cant...stop...hahahahahahahah!!!

Well...I know alot of you have been curious about how i have been doing, so here i am, im going to update you on alot of things. First of all, Im not hurt, or dead (duh...would i be typing this? :P) and secondly, Meghan (my wife) and I are doing OUTSTANDINGLY well under the extreme circumstances our marriage finds itself in on a daily basis. I have been promoted, and moved to a different Unit within the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. Im now with 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, Sappers. I'm no longer out in the suck, instead im sitting nice and cozy on camp stryker (BIAP) with internet in my room and cable TV. God i love the army :D. I'm running what we call "IronClaw" missions with the combat engineers, basically, we clear all the roads Within the Brigade AO of IED's, we take a different route every day and do it by random selection. Yes, I have been blown up and yes, I have been shot at, and yes i have shot back. Have I killed anyone? yes. am I proud of it? DAMN RIGHT. It was me or them, and in yesterdays case, it was almost both of us. I have one rule when it comes to killing the enemy, If you shoot at me or blow me up, and you dont kill me, you are dead. its that simple. I have recieved a Promotion to E4 (Specialist) in april, with a Promotion Board reccomendation for E5 (Sergeant) in November of this year, so we will see how that goes. We come home in november sometime, we were extended in late april. In addition to my promotion, i have also recieved a Combat Action Badge. At any rate, ill be on alot more often now, but i wanted you to know that i was ok, and All your prayers and care packages are MUCH appreciated. Later guys. Josh

Welcome to the world of me and my ZX-2. i imagine it drives VERY similar to the 5 speed Matrix XRS's which are a blast to drive. but you have to be careful!

Well craig, having read this thread for over a year...LOL...I think i may have FINALLY come up with a solution... I know you said they checked it, but check it yourself anyway. Run your car on a hard driving run until its good and hot, then pull it into a parking lot and look under your car at the catalytic converters...if they are glowing red or worse...white , spend the $800 or so and have them replaced and the problem should go away. Then, at operating temperature, have a friend redline the car (in neutral) for 2-4 seconds. stand at the back of the car and look at the exhaust. if its spitting out chunks (NOT DROPS) of black carbon, your cats have been fried for a while, if its spitting out oil, fuel or flames, (ANYTHING other than water) come back and let me know.

you can purchase a code reader at autozone, for relatively cheap. some range into the ~$250 range, but you can get them for as little as $100. Its a fairly common problem on the Gen II Legends...just throw it in yourself. that happens to computers when they get old, they just burn out. oh, and watch those headgaskets

congrats bro! glad you stayed in one piece. My car buying experiences have been a joy so far, we werent under pressure to buy when we bought the matrix so it was a buyers market for us. we could (and did) say, we want this price or we are leaving, and since it was an 05 sitting on their lot in feb of 06...they kinda needed to get rid of it. i said i want it for 18,000, and i want 4% interest or lower (it was a demo with 998 miles), and the extended 100,000 mile warranty, or im leaving. after looking at my nearly perfect credit, they then agreed and we walked out with a new car in another hour. the best part was they paid off her 96 saturn ($900) and gave us an additional $2,000 on the trade. that was awesome. we got $2,900 for a car that was worth $600 and they let us have the matrix without seeing the trade in until the next day. Long live dealmaker honda. anyway, sorry to hijack the thread. You wil love the mazda but do yourself a HUGE favor and get rid of the damned goodyears ASAP. some toyo or yokohama or something of this nature will be better suited to its ride. Even the Falken Zeix ZE-512's i rave about ($48 a piece in 17 inch at www.discounttiredirect.com) will do you fine, and though they dont last as long, but they ride MUCH better and have 10x the grip, and for that price, you can afford to replace them as often as once a year (which is what i do).

If you can drop a tranny, a rear main should be no trouble at all. i would keep a close eye out for chips in the flywheel teeth while in there as well, while not a common problem on the LS, if you are in there and there are moe than 2 teeth mising, change it, its expensive to do later.

wifey is still sleepin. i snuck out early this morning to get dunkin donuts and coffee...and i got caught sneakin back in...*note to self, shut off car and coast into driveway next time, ZX2 with gutted exhaust is too loud to sneak back in*. but i brought back roses so it was all good :) then she fell back asleep on the couch by accident and shes so pretty i just cant bring myself to wake her.

YIKES!!! Stay away... Hawk is junk. go with the thermoquiet. they wear faster but have lest dust. wagner is a decent aftermarket brand, especially their OE replacements. Also, bendix is a really good brand as well. And everyone here is gonna think im crazy, but dollar for dollar on OE replacements, Autozone's Duralast brand is VERY acceptable. about $24.99 for the front with a liftime gauruntee.

well, NC, heres my advice...simply take your vehicle to your local private stereo shop, purchase a 10" sub and enclosure. something like JL, Kenwood, Clarion, Diamond audio, ALPINE, etc....steer clear of MTX, Eclipse and anything SONY. sony does not belong in the car audio business they are junk. it shouldnt cost you more than $500, and you can get something like what i have for about $250. , you will lose a little trunk space, but you will have better sound that can handle anything your ipod will throw at it. the shop you buy from should be able to hook you up with the enclosure that will fit your space conserving needs, or custom make one if nesscary for a few dollars more. Be forwarned, the shops may look shady, but usually the ones that look run down do the best work, cause they are in it cause they like to do it. if you walk in and the shop looks presentable, but the building is old and the guy behind the counter is in his early-mid 20's and kind of scraggly lookin, thats ecactly where you want to be. :)

well, NC, heres my advice...simply take your vehicle to your local private stereo shop, purchase a 10" sub and enclosure. something like JL, Kenwood, Clarion, Diamond audio, ALPINE, etc....steer clear of MTX, Eclipse and anything SONY. sony does not belong in the car audio business they are junk. it shouldnt cost you more than $500, and you can get something like what i have for about $250. , you will lose a little trunk space, but you will have better sound that can handle anything your ipod will throw at it. the shop you buy from should be able to hook you up with the enclosure that will fit your space conserving needs, or custom make one if nesscary for a few dollars more. Be forwarned, the shops may look shady, but usually the ones that look run down do the best work, cause they are in it cause they like to do it. if you walk in and the shop looks presentable, but the building is old and the guy behind the counter is in his early-mid 20's and kind of scraggly lookin, thats ecactly where you want to be. :)

Your power steering leak is likely from your pump. I can tell you exactly why your alternator is bad, and the coolant leak is not related ot either of these incedents. when your Power steering pump began leaking, it sits above the alternator, and the flid drips down onto the alternator over time, effectively !Removed! it up...ad causing your car to not run. as for your coolant leak, you will need to get that fixed, running your car dry (no coolant) is a good way to royally screw yourself out of $4,000 (at the very least $2,000 for new heads and headgaskets).

someone said it's to make sure the paint doesn't crack.. can u really soften the metal with hair dryer? it serves both purposes. it will help the metal conform back to its original shape. i dont think it will work on this dent tho, its too big. if you look at the area under the taillight, you can see it stretched the metal and bent the taillight cavity. thats going to have to be a precision repair as steve said or it will never look right...i would be prepared to write a $2,000 check for it to look factory ever again. but being that its such a nice vehicle, i would find a way to pay that expense. i just looked again, the hair dryer wil not work, the paint is already ruined, if you look closely at the dent on the rear portion, you can see a crease in the metal. they wont even be able to fill that with body filler, it will crack and begin to fall off again in a few years because of that crease there, they will have to pull it out and reconform the metal, or as steve said, cut the panel out and weld a new one in. and JMO, DO NOT LET SERVICE KING ANYWHERE NEAR YOUR VEHICLE...you will not be happy with the results. service king is kinda like maaco...actually, they are just like maaco. repairs are cheap and will last a few years, but I wouldnt put a repair of that quality into anything except a 1993 Dodge Neon, or chevy cavalier.

I got 15 days, so you prolly wont see me back on, im gonna enjoy every minute here with the wifey. Love y'all, but im out till i get back to iraq! I went to pull my car out, its been sitting for 7 months. it was only started for 20 mins a week and never driven, and wouldnt you know it started right up, then after i unfroze the brakes (the drums in the rear had seized ) it drove fantastic. damned ford, i cant seem to kill it LOL. Laters... And thank you very much for all the support, it means so much to me.

I had my eye on a Beautiful 1993 Lexus ES300. i wanted it so bad...LOL...it had a blown head gasket but the price was right, for $1,000 i can fix the thing....then i got to thinking... I want an LS400...next year sometime hopefully. If i would have gotten this car, there would have been no LS4. i put my head back on my shoulders and decided i would rather have a running LS with 150k for $8,000 than a non running ES that for $1,000 that i MAY end up sinking $7,000 into...kinda liek the ES250, anyone remember that struggle? lol.

Im gonna be at Fort Drum for my R&R, maybe you could come up with the black beauty? make sure you dodge the saltwater puddles.