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PBCrunch posted:I think its because the general design of this car so closely mimics that of the LS400. You're not kidding, I scrolled past that post initially without realizing that it wasn't a LS400.
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Sep 15, 2009 00:13
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I did a front and rear brake job on my newly acquired $700 1995 Toyota Avalon. I was afraid the rear calipers might be bad, but they compressed with no problem and they definitely hold the car in place. My least favorite aspect of working on disc brakes: rotor surfacing. I drove across town to my mom's house where my tools are. I took all four rotors off the car. I took the rotors to O'Reilly Auto because they turn rotors. The fronts were okay but the rear rotors were out of spec. They did not have the rear rotors at any of their stores in the city. I called Autozone. They had one rotor at the nearby location and two other locations each had two rotors, but of course both stores were across town (about twenty minutes). I spent more time driving to buy rotors and drop off and pick up rotors for machining than actually putting the parts on the car. I had the pads already from Rockauto.com. If I was smart I would buy rotors online in the first place, but I'm a cheapskate and I hate throwing good parts away so I never buy the rotors and always take them in to be checked for machinability. It all got done though, in my mom's driveway with OMG 1000W halogen lights allowing me to finish.
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Sep 16, 2009 05:02
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 I can give short people rides now! 
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Sep 16, 2009 14:49
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Oh dear god, I'm replacing my rear main, with nothing but a Chilton's manual to guide me. The Manual is based off of a different year and engine than my car. And it started pouring down rain in Seattle, everything's soaked. I just took a break to eat dinner/smoke cigarettes/wonder why the gently caress I decided to do this. Please give me motivation to go back out in the wet and continue this quest, currently the shifter's off, driveshaft's out, and all I have to do is unbolt the tranny from the block. Please give me motivation to do this 
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Sep 17, 2009 02:55
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I set out to replace all four struts on my $700 1995 Toyota Avalon. To access the strut mount nuts for the struts you must: Remove the back sear bottom Remove the back seat back Remove the third brake light Remove the rear parcel shelf trim Then you can access the nuts for the rear struts. Also, Why on earth did Toyota decide that the sway bar end links should connect to the strut body instead of to the lower control arms? I only got the rear struts done but the fronts should be a piece of cake since there is more room and no trim to remove to access the strut mount nuts. The car has a much smoother more controlled ride so it was worth it.
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Sep 17, 2009 04:11
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I got my project bike to fire up today. I pulled a '82 Suzuki GS750 out of a guy's shed a few weeks ago and it needed quite a bit of work. I rebuilt the carbs, fixed a few bad connections, and it fired up on the first try. The key wouldn't work so I just busted the lock cylinder with a screwdriver. I'm missing a bracket for the seat and the gas tank is rusty, so I rode around the parking lot sitting on the rear fender with a 20oz Mountain Dew bottle half full of gasoline ziptied to the frame. It was amazing.
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Sep 17, 2009 04:26
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Set out to do all of my struts, but found that Rockauto had sent me 2 Left Rear struts. So I called them and I am returning one of those in exchange for a right one. I did the front struts, which would have taken 20 minutes per side since I was just replacing everything with Quick Struts, but my sway bar link bolts were rusted to hell. The first one broke in half.  I got it out with some Robogrip.  Since it broke, I needed a new one. Advanced Auto only had one left in stock, but I figured I should get 2 and do both sides, so I went to Pep Boys to get a second. Moog looked like it was better quality, but they cost the same price.  The other side was in one piece, but still rusted, and the bushings were horrible anyway. I hit it with PB Blaster, a blow torch until the bushing caught on fire, and several hammers. Eventually I destroyed it enough to get it out. This is my awesome breaker bar of justice.  The car is definitely higher on the front end.  Overall it was an easy job aside from the rusted bolts. However, my control arm bushings look like poo poo, and my tie rod end boots are also in poor condition.
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Sep 20, 2009 22:52
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^^^^ That is truly an awesome breaker bar! Oh, hey there!  Oh... Hey there...   That's from around 2,000 US gallons of gas. Or, 60,000 miles of driving. That's dirtier than I thought it would be... Changed the plugs, and the fuel filter today. Next week its oil change time and transmission fluid dilution time. (Its hardly a change, since less than half the fluid comes out...)
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Sep 21, 2009 03:14
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Went out this afternoon to pull the damaged fender off my 944, in preparation for picking up the replacement tomorrow. Ended up with the valence and bumper on the floor in my garage and one god damned bolt holding the fender in place. Good thing I needed to take those other two bits off anyway to replace one and replace the shocks behind the other.
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Sep 21, 2009 03:29
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FogHelmut posted:This is my awesome breaker bar of justice. And I went to an autocross today. The morning was diastrous (1 clean run out of 4; 2 off-course runs), but the afternoon runs were much better. It was my second autocross of the year, and despite the improvement in the afternoon I was still slow as poo poo (26th out of 35 in the PAX results).
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Sep 21, 2009 03:58
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Tried to determine why my passenger side fog light won't work. I get voltage at the plug, I think one of the socket terminals is too corroded. I couldn't clean enough off to get a good connection. Yes I replaced the bulb. I also plugged a mystery harness back in (I think its for the headlight wiper, but it still doesn't work).
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Sep 21, 2009 21:36
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FogHelmut posted:
My sister has a FWD V6 GM car and hers broke too. I personally think that design is a retarded way to connect a sway bar to a control arm.
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Sep 21, 2009 21:43
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Ziploc posted:My sister has a FWD V6 GM car and hers broke too. I personally think that design is a retarded way to connect a sway bar to a control arm. Honestly, it is retarded. There's that hollow plastic spacer in between the bushings there, and it was full of bits of gravel for some reason. I imagine that water would collect and sit in there, causing it to rust, which is why it broke at that point. The one on the other side was all rusted in, and I just smashed the plastic piece off with a hammer. The replacement parts had a metal spacer that slid snugly over the bolt.
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Sep 21, 2009 21:49
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I took the climate/ air conditioning module out of my cars dash to try and get a light to work. Now none of the lights on the unit switch on. Typical really. Guess I'll have to try again tomorrow.
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Sep 21, 2009 23:13
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Out with the old, in with the new selector shaft seal. 
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Sep 22, 2009 01:04
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Pulled the exterior door trim off of my 3. Looks much cleaner now.
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Sep 22, 2009 01:38
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Paid £24 for 3 bulbs worth about 10 pence each for the previously mentioned climate control back lights. Thank you Volvo for ripping me off. I tried to find them in other shops but as expected, no one had them.
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Sep 23, 2009 17:42
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Casnorf posted:Went out this afternoon to pull the damaged fender off my 944, in preparation for picking up the replacement tomorrow. Ended up with the valence and bumper on the floor in my garage and one god damned bolt holding the fender in place. Good thing I needed to take those other two bits off anyway to replace one and replace the shocks behind the other. I hated doing bodywork on my dad's 944. What a terrible design, bolts in places they don't really fit.
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Sep 23, 2009 18:02
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Put Koni SAs all the way around on the GTO this weekend along with new front strut mounts. Flushed the original brake fluid out and refilled it with Valvoline DOT4/5. Then spent Monday night gravity bleeding out air bubbles. Not positive I got all the air out but the pedal does feel better then it used to. Discovered my front radius rod bushing is toast by noticing perfectly tread shaped clean spots on the front of my wheel well liner from where my tire impacts it. I'll replace that after autocross this year so I can destroy it on the first autocross weekend of next year. I hate the retarded front suspension design on this car.
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Sep 23, 2009 19:55
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When I replaced the rear struts on my $700 1995 Toyota Avalon all the bodywork under the rear package shelf and back seat was incredibly dusty and dirty. I hate the idea of bolting parts on top of a mess so last night I cleaned the bodywork and installed the back seat.
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Sep 23, 2009 20:26
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I pulled off my US C350 bumper w/ Quick Park and put on a Euro C63 Bumper w/ Park Assist 
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Sep 24, 2009 21:09
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I changed the wiper blades on my 850, since it's starting to rain more often here (yay autumn!) and I can't remember the last time I did it. I also added a quart of oil. Result: I can see where I'm going in the wet, and the engine runs a little more smoothly. Still waiting on my '81 245 to arrive.
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Sep 25, 2009 00:41
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ripped all this aftermarket poo poo outta my 944: some of the alarm parts are still in the car, but the carphone system is history. next step: figure out why the incredibly terrible stereo wiring is shorting
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Sep 26, 2009 21:31
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Charles L. gently caress posted:ripped all this aftermarket poo poo outta my 944: You may have answered this question before you even started.
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Sep 27, 2009 03:27
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I got a proper boost tap from BSH so I moved my tap from it's previous vacuum location to the new one which allows me to use the heat shield for my SRI again. I don't have to zap strap the SRI to the coolant and the block now.  [edit] I also installed a inline fuel filter in the boost gauge line so now when the needle goes above 20psi it's doesn't flutter anymore. My Hankook RS-2's from this thread came in as well. Next up: wheels and suspension. Blocko fucked around with this message at 08:16 on Sep 27, 2009 |
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Sep 27, 2009 06:48
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I found out just how bad the front fender damage is on my 944. No idea if this can be repaired even reasonably at all. Picture is the new fender on during the test fit. Er, forgot to resize the picture in my clearly emotional state. Sorry. I don't know how to change what's attached to the post since there's no option to in the edit post screen.
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Sep 27, 2009 21:16
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Doctor Bud posted:You may have answered this question before you even started.
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Sep 27, 2009 22:10
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Went nuts with Stoner's Glass cleaner on my greenhouse and Meguire's Vinyl and Rubber protectant on all of my vinyl and rubber after leaving the windows open a bit all day to let it completely dry out after the rains we had last week. Tomorrow I'll be hunting down and repairing a leak in my interior/weatherstripping which is causing it to stink and giving me a wet rear end after a hard rain. Threw some Gumout in the tank before a fill-up and will be replacing the main fuel filter after this tank is done with. I don't think that filter has ever been changed, if the spark plugs were any indication, so it should really help things out. I'll keep on putting Gumout in there and will probably change both fuel filters again about 1k miles after I change the main. zamin fucked around with this message at 22:40 on Sep 27, 2009 |
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Sep 27, 2009 22:37
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PBCrunch posted:The other day I bought a 1995 Toyota Avalon for $700. It needed brakes, struts, exhaust work, and tires. It was missing one of the fifteen inch factory alloys so the fourth wheel was a fifteen inch full-size spare. Sweet ride man! I love the gold badges. Such a great deal for only 700 bones. Those wheels look great on it, who cares if they're a different make. Lets get some interior pics of this thing. Good luck with the struts and codes! Edit: Wow that really does look remarkably like an LS400 Brain Issues fucked around with this message at 05:16 on Sep 28, 2009 |
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Sep 28, 2009 05:12
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Thanks for the kind words. The struts are done and the car is liking riding on a cloud. The gold badges look better in the pics than they do on the car. I have another set of those same wheels for winter wheels for my SC400. My SC400 wheels have gold emblems on the center caps so I think I'm going to switch them over so everything matches. The gold badges look extra tacky on my SC so everybody wins. I am selling the car to my brother since he needs it. He has a six-year-old son that stays over on weekends plus his live-in GF has a four-year-old son and is eight months pregnant with my brother's second child, a daughter. I have no kids and need no back seat or back doors. I haven't been able to do much to any of my cars since I moved into my first house September 19 and helped my brother move into his first house September 26. My garage is a disaster area and the inside of the house has been taking all my attention. Plus its football season and I've been to all three Nebraska home games and some of my friend's son's high school games. I did buy some great big steel shelves that are rated to handle like 4500 pounds each yesterday. I need to assemble them though.
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Sep 28, 2009 16:59
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I did something interesting today, the auto-dim function on my V70 rear view mirror wasn't working. "So swap in a new one" you say. Oh ho ho, not so fast. On the newer Volvos (and many other cars these days) the rear view mirror is more than a mirror. It's called the "upper electronic module" and it contains the antenna for the car alarm and is linked to the immobilizer, and controls the sunroof and and and a shitload of other stuff, I guess. Anyway, because of this, it's flashed permanently with the VIN. The bad news is that you can't swap in a used one. They want $600 for a new one. The good news is that this makes used ones worthless, and you can get them for nothing. I read this link on how to swap the guts, and tried it out. I picked up two mirror assemblies, one with auto-dim and one with a mechanical dimming toggle. I figured that if the autodim mirror tested bad, or if mine tested good, I'd just put in the mechanical one. Anyway, my glass tested bad, and the spare tested good, so I swapped the glass and stuck it all back together and it works! I've been driving in the dark a lot more lately so it was getting really annoying being blinded.
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Sep 29, 2009 05:56
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I ordered a couple relays that will replace the ones which commonly go bad on FC RX7 wiper switches, should take 4-6 weeks to get here and then I'll try to solder for the first time in a couple years. Intermittent would be awesome!
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Sep 29, 2009 06:04
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First, a full LED lighting conversion... Dash lighting, warning lights, center stack, the lot. The only incandescent bulb left in my instrument cluster is the Alternator light. Click here for the full 1600x1200 image. Warning lights from left to right along the bottom are: Battery (red), Oil Pressure (red), Overdrive (green), High Beam (blue), Parking Brake (red), Brake Fail (red), Bulb Failure (yellow). The dial illumination is nice and subdued, just the way I like it.  Click here for the full 1200x1600 image. The seatbelt warning light is now really loving bright, and the rest of the lighting matches my headunit perfectly. The second thing I did was add an auto power antenna. Replaced the lovely 1981 OEM doesnt-retract-all-the-way-down with one that retracts all the way down and will only be up on the very, very rare occasions I listen to the radio. Edit: Just noticed this too!  I have a very large box coming from IPD in the USA with a few useful bits... New speedo cable (the old one breaking is why the car is off the road at the moment), full set of engine and trans mounts, accessory bushings, genuine ceramic euro fuses, a new shift boot, knob, overdrive switch and cap, a preheat hose, and a 4th gear lockout switch. Having cleared customs now, I should have it early to mid next week!  Annoyingly enough, I only noticed my license plate lights cutting out (meaning new tailgate wiring harnesses) *after* this order had shipped! 
Bass Ackwards fucked around with this message at 02:31 on Oct 1, 2009 |
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Oct 1, 2009 02:22
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The aux-in wasn't working in my 07 WRX, and when I took it apart I discovered that the cable connecting the aux jack to the stereo just wasn't there. Stupid previous owner. Anyways, since Subaru couldn't get it for me I hit up car-part.com and found a junkyard that had three 2007 WRX's on the lot. The first two cars had already had their cable removed. The third WRX had this:  Just had to  and now I have a perfectly functional aux in jack.
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Oct 1, 2009 03:12
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Sup WES51 buddy  I tried to polish my headlight lenses to no avail. They're so clouded that it's bordering on frightening driving at night. I'm going to go to the picknpull tomorrow to try and find some that are in better shape. That or find some better way of polishing. I need to get it up in the air and figure out why I suddenly have a little bit of play in the steering, which is horribly annoying.
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Oct 1, 2009 03:23
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Hypnolobster posted:Sup WES51 buddy Allow me to butt in if I may: Did you try Plast-X? http://www.meguiarsdirect.com/detail/MEG+G12310 Great stuff. I am a huge believer in this blue goo. I've brought back many a headlight from the brink of being useless with it. You can get it at Auto Zone too if you don't want to order it online. Not much of a risk if it doesn't work because it's like $7 a bottle.
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Oct 1, 2009 08:31
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Replaced a light socket and the electric radio antenna, both of which were buggered up. Total parts cost at the local junkyard: $14. Next step is new spark plugs in my other car, hooray! Trying to get into doing more of my own car work and this forum has been an amazing resource for that. Thank you 
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Oct 1, 2009 17:55
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I washed my fiancees 9-3 Aero and my WRX today. Unfortunately, I used Super Clean Wheel Cleaner which hosed up the finish on my wheels. But now I have a good excuse to have the wheels powder coated gold. I also had to plug a hole in one of the tires on the Saab.
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Oct 1, 2009 23:23
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Vanagoon posted:Allow me to butt in if I may: I didn't, I tried some relatively generic headlight polishing kit that I was skeptical of in the first place. I'll pick up some of that stuff tomorrow and see if it works 
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Oct 2, 2009 00:36
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 08:19 |
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FogHelmut posted:This is my awesome breaker bar of justice.
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Oct 2, 2009 02:25
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