April 25th 2006
Valve Job & AWD/Break Lights Need to Turn Off!
So lets jump into this - last weekend was my father-in-laws birthday. Friday night the wife and I set off on a nice little trip to Grandview in the C4. We're not 10 minutes from the house when:

**I tap the breaks**
**The breaks don't seem to be working**
"holy shit" goes though my head on the outer road as I recall Stephen saying - "drive her very gently..."

See, I HAD to have her back while my baby was just sitting out back getting covered in pollen. Stephen said I could have her and bring her back in when the AWD part came in from Germany. The ONE thing I had to worry about was the breaks. And I might have driven her a little harder then I should have. Anyway, moving on:

**The breaks don't seem to be working...holy shit, lets turn this car the hell around**

Which we do. The next day I drive up to get some break fluid (*****take picture of bottle and break fluid reservoir*****) - because after checking the levels I'm rather low. I fill her up, but I still have issues with failure (Stephen tells me once you get air in the lines you're pretty screwed). So Sunday afternoon (or Saturday afternoon, I forget) we drive out to Imagine to drop her off. I kid you not, driving from Lee's Summit to Lenexa Kansas I touched the breaks no more then 4 times - downshifting kicks ass.

So I talk to the Imagine guys on Monday and they tell me it'll be a week. Cool. I forget my badge in the glove box, so I head over there at lunch - it's already on the lift:

"yeah, we started early."

I get the car back on Wednesday. WEDNESDAY! Crazy. Seems my valves are good, but my valve plates could stand the be replaced, so I did. They tell me "The original ones tend to warp with time and wear - these new ones will not." My break light and AWD light no longer glow which is nice as well (*****find actual part # and reference name*****).

She drives great, hums in idle, and is still so much fun to drive. Hell, I look forward to bad weather to run the AWD system hard.