JDM?

Being at an impasse with the rear struts on the FX, decided to look at some smaller issues. Sunroof is slugish. I pulled the motor from the previous FX, it was actually new replaced just before I bought it, and also pulled the fuzzy edge trim since current FX doesn’t have it and just has ugly edges. Replaced motor, greased up tracks, put on edge molding. Looks nice, closes. Ugh, doesn’t open! Attempts to, cracks open a bit, and stops. What is going on? I remove the trim and the sunroof opens, still slugishly. It turns out that the fuzzy panel on the sliding roof section has been out of it’s correct track all this time. I pop it back, put the trim back, and the roof slides better than new!

Next up was the driver window. Lately it’s gotten quite, cranky. I figured it was like the original FX and the gears on the toothed crescent shaped thing on regulator was stripping out. I pop the door panel off. What the heck is that blue thing? It’s a door lock popper solenoid, assumedly stuck in by the alarm installers. This explains why the action of the lock mechanism was never nice, the throw on the solenoid is adjusted so the mechanism doesn’t click all the way it’s supposed to. I readjust it, not sure if the popper will work correctly, but I’m not concerned with that. The installation is a bit of hack, but with something like this there isn’t really any other way aside from getting the factory power locks. Just wait until I get to the other side though, I’ll find it later, the solenoid doesn’t even match and the sheet metal is hacked up leaving pointy jagged edges worse than the meanest China build your own PC case.

Whatever, what I need to check next is the window regulator, so I start on removal of that. What the heck is this? Why is there a notch cut into the sheet metal around the access hole for the glass fastner? This is weird. I unbolt the rest of the regulator and pull it out. Well, the teeth on the crescent thing actually look ok, what’s going on? I put the handle on it and crank it and it’s immediately evident that the pivot for the crank is totally woggly. If you look carefully, you can see the hole is elongated. Previous FX regulator is good so I can use that.

So what is going on with the glass mount? I pull the glass out of the two FX’s. Whaddya know, they’re different. Not sure where the current FX’s one came from, the top section matches, but the bottom edge doesn’t and the metal channel is placed forward because of this, thus the hole chopped in the door. Sheesh. I swap glass, grease up all the joints, and replace the door locks while in there. Put it all back together, and seriously, the window cranks up and down better than new!

And since I’m taking care of seemingly minor annoyances, I look at the wiper arms that Ckucky had previously pointed out. For the benefit of installers, they’re actually labeled with a large P and D. It shouldn’t take a cryptologist to figure out it probably signifies Passenger and Driver side. But I guess whoever installed these thought they were being all JDM or something, they’re on the wrong sides. This would explain why they were always sitting at a slightly odd angle when at rest. Sheeze again! Quickly remedied.

Kinda makes me worried what other things I’ll run across. I can’t remember if I ranted about the engine mount missing a nut. But I’m getting close to pretty much having gone over everything on this FX.