So through all the pain and heartache that is attached with owning a DSM, through that dark, sad, costly gloom, comes a ray of sunshine and happiness that makes being a DSMer well worth it.

I'm talking about my DSM of course which happens to be a 92 talon tsi awd. But let's go back a little bit to where I started my addiction.

I bought my first DSM in october of 08, it was a 97 and wasn't that great, then I bought another one in february of this year which was a 96, turned out to be really great with tons of problems, mainly the traction in 1st and 2nd gear, or the lack there of. Which lead to to the wanting of an awd.

So I sold my gst in hopes of finding a 1st gen awd, and I found one, skipped timing, bent valves, kissed pistons, so 700 bucks later I tow it home and begin the process of rebuilding. 500 bucks later and a bit of frustration, and about a month, it starts and it purrs and it makes me happy.

I had a little fiddling to do since the previous owner, or the one before him, had no clue in how to wire the maf translator gen 2. Got wired up and it runs perfectly.

So I begin the break in process and can't wait till I can go WOT and feel the difference between awd and fwd.

That's my story it makes me happy to own a DSM again, well for now lol.

Should of got better tires and keeped the gst. 2g's look sexy as hell. That being said, glad you got your car straightened out and running again.

Don't get me wrong, I love the 2g's but finding an awd with a decent price was impossible, and to have what I want for 1200 I don't think I could beat that.

Plus a lot of people don't expect the 1g to be as fast, everybody sees the 2g and think "Paul Walker"

So I'm happy, for now. Once I get my other car this talon is gonna be strictly track use only.

Lol, true, true.

I thought it was more like a samurai, squirell, zebra, eating a leprachan while reaching warp speed lol.

1g...Wait till you ecu dies, leaving you stranded. Tapered bearings in the trans hand grenade. Wires to the injectors break when you touch it. And so on, but hey, that's what the fun is all about! The little quirks weed out the weak, and make guys move on to hondas (serts)

Yeah, I've already had my fair share of brittle wires, most annoying was the cas wires, deepo in the loom one was broken and was causing the engine to shut off whenever the hell it wanted to.

Grenaded trans? Well I haven't gotten that far. . . .yet lol.

This is what's fun about owning a DSM though, its a huge learning experience. Owning a dsm for 5 months will gain you tons of knowledge on almost every aspect of the car, not necessarily by choice, but forced to.

But there's no better way to learn then by experience.

Well see how I feel when I do grenade my trans lol.

it's always fun trying to change things in 1g's that have wire connections, and trying to disconnect the wires without bending the wires and preventing them from breaking =]


it's like a makeshift "operation" game.

Here's my timeline....

1996 Eagle Talon TSi AWD

December 2006: Purchased Vehicle. Was 100% stock other than really ugly aftermarket rims. Needed lots of TLC.
December 2006 - February 2007: Did some basic maintenace and drove car
February 2007 - November 2007: Out of comission for 1st installment of mods.
November 2007-January 2008: Drove car for 2 or 3 weeks. Then a friend breaks cam positioning sensor which leads to other issues that take weeks to figure out. Again out of commision.
January 2008: Get car running and that night it blows up and almost kills me and Scott Gray.
January 2008 - April 2009: Out of comission for rebuild and 2nd installment of mods.


So in 2 and a half years and about $17,000 invested, I've driven the car for a total on 3 months max. I love DSMs!!!

1995 Talon Tsi
Bought 2005

3 Months later - Dead clutch two week repair (first time, now I can do it in 2.5-3 hours)
2-3 Months after the clutch, Turbo dies, swapped in 14B
1 Month Later Motor kills a rod bearing.
7 Months Later, build a 6bolt, install it. 2 Weeks later dead after running over oil cooler after hitting a mean dip that took it out
3 Months Later, 6bolt #2 in. Rocking hard
4-5 Months Later, Jumped timing at Chino meet, bent two valves. Fixed head in 1 day next weekend
4-5 Months Later, Balance shaft belt craps, not too bad, timing job again.
5-6 Months Later October of 07 ish, Killed 6bolt#2, detonated on the way to Monday meet, after jumping timing.
1 Month Later, 6bolt#3, Fully built, rocking harder than ever.
5 Months Later, Broke Pressure plate, Fixed same day
1 Month Later, Broke Diff in Tranny drag racing. Rebuilt 1 week later.
Today, driving it still.


Damn...that's pretty bad.

Well the bright side got dark as hell today, but it didn't last long lol.

I drove the car to work with no problems, left work and went to 97spyderGS's house to borrow his air compressor for boost leak testing, I noticed a nice long trail of some kind of fluid coming from my car, I looked under the driver side and saw a nice puddle of, once again, some kind of fluid.

I initially thought power steering fluid, but this was a lot. Didn't have tools or time to really look, luckily we live close to each other so I took it really easy goin home, pulled in the garage and jacked it up.

The damn oil pressure sending unit wasn't even screwed in tight I could wiggle it in place. This is weird cause when I put on the OFH everything looked good, but I could have missed it.

That and the oil drain line was loose om the turbo which was causing another leak.

I'm glad it was just that, you have no idea what was going through my head lol, but it was scary.