I recently had to return my Mastercraft 25′ measuring tape as it had sprung out (or whatever it’s called when the tape will no longer retract). Interestingly enough, this is the second one I’ve had to get replaced for the same reason. I’m not entirely sure why I’m “lucky” like this. I barely use the measuring tape. I had to get the first one replaced within a week of buying it. The second time was just last week.

So, instead of having to go buy another $14.99 measuring tape, I just walk in and show them my broken one. They get me a replacement one and I walk out with a new measuring tape. Fantastic. The best part is you don’t need your receipt to do this either, well, as long as they can identify the tool is really a Mastercraft tool.

Of course, for anything with a long term warranty it’s always a good idea to keep those receipts.

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Go register your number now!

The website is rather overloaded right now so you might have to try a few times to get your number registered. Don’t worry, you can register anytime after September 30 so even waiting a few days won’t make a huge difference.

While the National DNCL won’t stop all unwanted phone calls, it should stop you from getting those stupid timeshare offers and other annoying recorded messages that tend to come right around meal time.

Make sure you check out the Who Can Still Call You page for more information on the entities that are still able to harass you at meal time.

Also, the registration is only valid for 3 years. The website will give you an expiration date so put a reminder in your calendar for that date and a link back to the DNCL website so you can re-register.

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Sure enough, my brake rotors are shot. Now, the interesting part - my brake pads were still in fantastic condition.

I actually had to come back home and read my original post to jog my memory about what parts I had put on the Sunfire. Turns out, I put the high quality Monroe brake pads from Canadian Tire on the Sunfire. Unfortunately, I put the cheapest rotors on as that was all they had at my local Canadian Tire the day I went in. I had been looking for the Monroe rotors at the time. Crap. Yes, the rotors lasted about 40,000km but having my mechanic tell me that the pads are still in fantastic shape irritates me.

What I’ve taken from this, and why I’m calling this post “Brake Pad and Rotor Replacement 102″, is that it’s probably better to spend money on good rotors instead of good pads. Well, at least don’t mix and match quality.

Anyways, due to some recent changes in real life, I didn’t have time to do another brake pad and rotor job on the Sunfire myself so I dropped almost $450 at the garage for the brake inspection, adjustment and replacement, my oil change and my tires getting rotated. Barf. Here’s hoping I don’t have to do any brake work for at least 50,000km.

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That’s right folks, our 2006 Pontiac Vibe was over 85,000km on the factory brake pads and rotors. Now, admittedly, we do a lot of highway driving and very little in the way of stop and go driving. Even so, I figured that over 85,000km was a little much for a car to go on factory pads and rotors. We got the car into our local garage for them to take a look and let us know what the damage was going to be.

“There’s nothing wrong with your brakes.”

Yup, that’s what the mechanic said to The Boss. He mentioned that there were a few “hot spots” on the rotors that he was going to grind down but otherwise the fronts still had about 50% and the rears were still about 60%. Even the mechanic was very surprised when he realized these were the stock factory brake pads and rotors.

I really can’t complain about our 2006 Pontiac Vibe. We have only had to pay for a set of winter tires, oil changes and tire rotations. I think we’re in for a new set of all-seasons next spring but the car will be near 90,000km by then and again, I can’t complain about getting that much mileage out of a set of stock factory tires or a set of pads and rotors!

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The MTO had a website with a webcam setup so people could watch the “action”. As I did last year, I grabbed the images from the website as the action was unfolding. The video below is the result of those images and allows you to see what happened. It’s not quite as “exciting” as the Island Park bridge move last year but at least this time the camera is reasonably static.

1. The webcam was updated every 30 seconds (roughly) and the video above is encoded at 5fps. The total length of the video is just over 7 minutes.
2. The compressed video is almost 70MB and the uncompressed one is over 1.8GB so no, I won’t email it to you.

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Our average fuel consumption for 2008 is currently at 8.34L/100km (~ 28 MPG). This isn’t very good in my opinion but it does include winter driving with the snow tires on. In the winter with the snow tires, we’re getting around 9.0L/100km (~ 26.5 MPG). In the summer months we’re down around 7.5L/100km (~ 31.4 MPG) which is a little better. It’s interesting because the US DoE has the 2006 Pontiac Vibe at 31 MPG (7.6L/100km) for highway with their readjusted numbers. My problem still stems from the fact this car was rated at 34 MPG (6.9L/100km) for highway when we bought it. The best fuel economy I’ve ever achieved in that car was a one-off 6.7L/100km (~ 35.1 MPG). That was when we were driving on secondary roads averaging 90km/h (~55 MPH), true “highway” driving. I also annoyed the snot our of The Boss on this drive as I was putting into practice some of the driving techniques I’ve learned from reading ecomodder.com.

With some driving style modifications, I think this car should be able to do consistently in the 6.8L/100km to 7.0L/100km range in the summer. It’s very noticeable though when you turn on the AC as the little 1.8L engine has to rev higher to deal with the added load. This definitely contributes to worse fuel economy. One thing to keep in mind is that the defrost settings on this car also turn on the AC.

One other gripe about the car is that there is a very thin layer of paint. It seems that everything causes a small paint chip. I think if you sneezed while standing within 10 feet of the car it would get a paint chip. To try and keep the rust at bay, I bought one of those colour matched paint pens from the dealership and every couple months I have to dab a few more chips. Nothing major but it’s one maintenance annoyance I could do without.

We’re probably going to keep this car for many more years. It will probably get relegated to the “second car” in a few years as it’s not quite big enough for a growing family.

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