Hate when that happens. Here in IL, none of those are considered moving violations that go against your record, they're equipment failures. And if I went to court showing the turn signals are fixed, the front plate is on, and proof of your insurance, it'll get tossed out of court without a fine. Is N.Y. that "nice"?

 

Fix the problem, show updated card = ticket tossed out = no income for the city (tickets make city/towns money).

 

The insurance card thing I'm taking care of, it's going to get thrown out. The turn signal issue he didn't write me a ticket for, because he "Understands" that I'm "Working on getting it fixed", and the license plate ticket is the only one I'll HAVE to pay. He explained it that it isn't necessarily a ticket, but a summons, so there's no points on the license or court dates. "Just follow the instructions," he says. Doesn't help that NYS DMV site and tickets might as well be written in Arabic.

Just waiting on the Panhard to come in, and I ordered a turn signal bulb socket from Autozone to take care of the rear turn signal on the driver's side (So over-rusted it created a weld between the bulb and the socket). The right side is still funky. Sometimes it blinks, most times it just freezes. When it does blink, only the front signal flashes and the rear is dark (Could be the same issue as the driver's side, checking it out eventually). Here's what I threw at it so far:

-Replaced Turn Signal flasher
-Replaced Turn Signal switch
-All bulbs replaced a few months ago with silverstar bulbs (Could it be a voltage issue with these bulbs that could cause the crazy rust/weld/fusion in the socket?)

Only thing I can think of now would be the BCM or a bad ground somewhere. Hoping it's a ground issue...

 

Are you sure you replaced the turn signal flasher and not the four way flasher? I made that mistake when one side of my turn signals stopped working.

Don't sweat on the tickets. Happens to the best of us. I'm at two traffic tickets (almost three but I explained to the officer I was going off my GPS and it must have been reading wrong, 60 in a 35) and at least a half dozen parking tickets. Haha

 

Yeah, I'm sure. Replaced it twice. Hazard flasher works perfectly fine, with the exception of the lights not actually flashing

 

Well, here she is, finally. Got the time and weather was decent enough to do the swap:



Sorry, this is the only decent picture I could get. Camera battery was dying, and the files on my phone are encrypted due to security policies from my job. Made sure to use marine grease and do everything the paperwork said. Even got a chance to use the torque wrench, LOL.

Also, better shot of the differential cover I mentioned earlier.

Took a quick test drive to see how it felt around the block (Lots of tight turns, great way to test suspension), and it looks like the squealing issues I had are gone. Who knew?

 

Nope, I was wrong. Rear end is still making noises on turns. Only after driving for a while, and sounds worse on right turns than left. Also, I may have figured out the turn signal issue. Replaced the rear passenger turn signal socket, and it flashes every time. Now to investigate the front passenger light. Most likely bad ground, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't

 

Now that the noise issue was worked out, I can give a decent update:

The body kit is once again coming off. I don't want to say for good, but it needs repair, bad. The place I work at is currently undergoing construction, and the jackasses never bothered to repair the entrance to the parking lot. My car + low ground effects + pothole = destruction. So now I have to look around for a decent body shop to repair the ground effects kit the RIGHT way (Meaning not just Bondo, haha), and maybe even get it painted proper before installing it back on. Also adjusted the panhard to OEM specs. Had to eyeball it compared to the original panhard, should be the right size now. Also made sure it won't loosen up again by cleaning up the threads, coating them with Loctite red, and crushing the nut after the rod was installed.

One last thing I'm trying to get figured out is the brakes. Every now and then, I hear that groaning sound while stopping, and it's worst when I'm turning into a parking spot and pressing the brakes at the same time. Considering I got new rotors, I'm taking into account a possible manufacturer defect with the runout. But for now, since I don't have the equipment to turn rotors, I'm just going to take them apart, clean and grease everything up, then put it all back together and see the results

 

I wouldn't have used red Loctite....

 

How come? I had a feeling that the nut on the panhard was coming loose from vibrations, so I used the Loctite made for vibrations and shock. Makes sense to me