My theme for the week has been getting all the things done to my G8 GT and FJR1300AE that I’ve been putting off.
The FJR stuff was easy since I wasn’t going to do any of it myself, I just needed to get her towed to the motorcycle dealership.
- Safety recall for ignition switch failures
- Replace front tire
- Oil change and other routine service
For the G8 I’ve had a growing list of things to get done:
- Hardwire Valentine One to the mirror power connector
- Mount Valentine One on BlendMount mirror mount
- Replace O2 sensor
- Install headers
- Fix bumper
- Replacing turn signal bulb
- Install Vararam ram air intake
- License Plate Bracket
- De-badging
The O2 sensor has been a thorn in my side for like five months. Rear O2 sensors don’t do anything terribly important — they are mandated by the government to verify that the catalytic converters are functioning, whereas the front sensors make sure your air-to-fuel ratio isn’t so out-of-whack as to destroy the cats — but their failure triggers a Check Engine Light… and the CEL disables the remote start function of the car. It’s friggin’ hot around here this time of year so I’m extremely grateful to again have the ability to start my car — and the air conditioning — a few minutes before I leave the house. It may not be “environmentally sensitive” but I don’t enjoy burning my ass on the car seats.
The de-badging only got partially done, on the trunk I took off the word Pontiac and the dealer sticker (major PITA). With just G8 on one side and GT on the other it actually looks pretty good. Replaced the dealer’s plastic license plate bracket with a metal one that seems to rattle quite a bit less — the trunk unfortunately only has two screw-holes for the license plate so rattling is always going to be an issue. The intake I was going to save for cooler weather but replacing the turn signal bulb required removing half of the original intake so I figured I might as well keep going…
Next up I think will be getting the windows tinted.
