Valentina Motorsports

Nice upgrade for the Z, before and after. I really like the comfort feeling of the steering wheel in my racecar and have always felt like I was reaching for the wheel in the Z. This was a great way to retain the OEM steering wheel and airbag.

Fun track day. First time on Thunderbolt with the car.
I think it has too much pad on the rear brakes which makes it unstable under braking. My best for the day was a 1:35 using 225 falken rt660 that are now 3 years old.

NJMP Thunderbolt May 2024 Cobalt 2.4L SS. Fastest laps was a 1:35.4.

Side mirrors fix. Passengers side needed a swash plate replacement and drivers side needed new mirror since the original started to delaminate. Both needed rubber weather seals replaced. Mercedes has the weirdest mounting design for these mirrors. The mechanic who previously worked on this car gave up on the fix and glued the passengers mirror cover in, which took time to clean off and mount properly. Found a used mirror for the drivers side with heating and dimming option.

Right side engine mount was shot. Closest to the exhaust, not a total surprise. Went with bilstein again to keep the German parts theme errr maybe not. Decided to replace the transmission mount as well. Not the easiest to replace or reach but all new. Previous owner had the left side replaced.

Last of the CEL items. New MAF sensor, which was probably the easiest fix. While at it, replaced the plugs, wires, and coils. Went with a OEM Bosch items since it seems like the one that works best and consistently.

Splurged on some bilstein dampers for the Mercedes. Install was relatively easy with divorced springs all around, outside of limited space up front. Got to use some tools I forgot I had. The divorced springs are begging to be replaced with bags.

Up next and a common issue in this generation of Mercedes is a broken AC fan speed selector. This meant tracking down a used AC controller and installing it. Fairly straightforward but it’s also a 24yr old car that spent part of its life in Arizona so I was fearful to break any plastic or clips.

Was going to sand and clear the turn signals but decided to splurge on new replacements. Turns out the old ones were coming apart anyway.

Next CEL code to fix was the EVAP error. Extra gas cap was a sign that’s been something that was in process to be fix. Pulled the rear wheel well covers to where most of the evap components live. No obvious problem, re tightened everything. Easiest thing was to buy a smoke machine and found the problem pretty quickly. Decided to replace a couple underhood vacuum lines as well.

Knowing I had a lot of under hood work, I decided to clean off the 24 years worth of dirt and oil from the engine and engine bay. As a friend said my driveway is now a superfund site. Also I didn’t realize the supercharger had a clutch disconnect for fuel mileage. Which explains the 2 throttle bodies and all the extra piping.

The first obvious things to fix were the check engine codes on the Mercedes. One was a O2 sensor fault. Of course it’s the downstream one that requires the exhaust to be dropped. That’s because it’s between the floor and the exhaust in the y pipe from the 2 cats.