Wrenchin... Adventures under the hood... Put em here.

[SumJongGuy]

Ho boy who's ready for a good laugh?

Been changing my own oil and filters without much drama for 20 years now on 8+ different family vehicles. Every new first time is a little adventure. Today was no exception. Wife's new (to us) 2020 Corolla maintenance nag light popped up last week. I had already ordered that drain plug valve part I run on all our vehicles in anticipation of the first round with the Corolla. She had it at work yesterday so I went online to research the filter, viscosity, etc Everything in the top searches said it takes 0W16, including Toyota sites.. and folks were whining about it being hard to find, expensive, etc... You can run 0W20 ONCE if there is no other option it says, per Toyota. OK so got the oil and filter this morning... WallyWorld had ONE option for 0W16 and it tool awhile to find it in the sea of 0W20. Stoked that I found some but bummed at the prospects for the future of oil needs I went up the ramps and dove in.

Of course it has spalsh guards for spash guards to even get to the pan and filter. No big deal, just annoying. Drained the oil, drain plug with valve fit as expected. Kinda freaked a little because the freaking oil filter was RATTLE loose, not even finger tight.. the thing wasn't even snug. Man that could have been a problem if I had waited longer.

OK, drain plug back in, new filter installed. Now to add the new 0W16 oil... Freaking cap says 0W20???? REALLY? I check the manual just in case the last person lost a cap and put one on with the incorrect viscosity. Nope, manual says 0W20. I am actually glad I was wrong about that but pissed to have to go back to the store. So back to Wallyworld I go to swap for 0W20

I know, I said this was going to make you laugh at me ... keep reading..

Back home with the correct oil I start adding it. 3.5 quarts and I pull the dipstick to see how close I am... NOTHING!!!! What?? Oh shit. I roll back under there.. YEP, it's all running out in to the overflowing drain pan dripping all around that stupid spash guard I had put back. I shove a clean drain pan under there trying to catch what still hadn't drained yet. Pulled the 4 bolts to take off the splash guard again and DAMN, the valve on the drain plug was OPEN DOH!!! I really thought it looked closed when I peeked before installing it. Flipped it closed... BACK TO THE STORE.. FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCKITY FUCK!!! Bought 4 more quarts knowing that 3 was probably enough with what I hadn't wasted. Cleaned the splash guard, filled it properly double checking BEFORE replacing the splash guard. On the bright side, I was able to quickly figure out how to reset the maintenance nag light.

File this under shoulda gone to JiffiLube...

[El Chupacabra]

FWIW, I'm using 0W-20 in Mrs C's RAV4, which has the same spec calling for 0W-16. Runs fine. I expect zero issues.

Lots more oil availability in 0W-20 too.

[SumJongGuy]

FWIW, I'm using 0W-20 in Mrs C's RAV4, which has the same spec calling for 0W-16. Runs fine. I expect zero issues.

Lots more oil availability in 0W-20 too.

Ya I almost just used the 0W16 but everything I read said DO NOT PUT 0W16 in a 0W20 engine.. Other way is less likely to cause problems. Looks like lots of people do the 20 instead of 16 in the summer. But, running 16 in a 20 causes global disasters and zombie apocalypses. according to Toyota.. So back to the store I went hahahaha. Not gonna fuck up her new car..

[Thaleia]

Ho boy who's ready for a good laugh?

Been changing my own oil and filters without much drama for 20 years now on 8+ different family vehicles. Every new first time is a little adventure. Today was no exception. Wife's new (to us) 2020 Corolla maintenance nag light popped up last week. I had already ordered that drain plug valve part I run on all our vehicles in anticipation of the first round with the Corolla. She had it at work yesterday so I went online to research the filter, viscosity, etc Everything in the top searches said it takes 0W16, including Toyota sites.. and folks were whining about it being hard to find, expensive, etc... You can run 0W20 ONCE if there is no other option it says, per Toyota. OK so got the oil and filter this morning... WallyWorld had ONE option for 0W16 and it tool awhile to find it in the sea of 0W20. Stoked that I found some but bummed at the prospects for the future of oil needs I went up the ramps and dove in.

Of course it has spalsh guards for spash guards to even get to the pan and filter. No big deal, just annoying. Drained the oil, drain plug with valve fit as expected. Kinda freaked a little because the freaking oil filter was RATTLE loose, not even finger tight.. the thing wasn't even snug. Man that could have been a problem if I had waited longer.

OK, drain plug back in, new filter installed. Now to add the new 0W16 oil... Freaking cap says 0W20???? REALLY? I check the manual just in case the last person lost a cap and put one on with the incorrect viscosity. Nope, manual says 0W20. I am actually glad I was wrong about that but pissed to have to go back to the store. So back to Wallyworld I go to swap for 0W20

I know, I said this was going to make you laugh at me ... keep reading..

Back home with the correct oil I start adding it. 3.5 quarts and I pull the dipstick to see how close I am... NOTHING!!!! What?? Oh shit. I roll back under there.. YEP, it's all running out in to the overflowing drain pan dripping all around that stupid spash guard I had put back. I shove a clean drain pan under there trying to catch what still hadn't drained yet. Pulled the 4 bolts to take off the splash guard again and DAMN, the valve on the drain plug was OPEN DOH!!! I really thought it looked closed when I peeked before installing it. Flipped it closed... BACK TO THE STORE.. FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCKITY FUCK!!! Bought 4 more quarts knowing that 3 was probably enough with what I hadn't wasted. Cleaned the splash guard, filled it properly double checking BEFORE replacing the splash guard. On the bright side, I was able to quickly figure out how to reset the maintenance nag light.

File this under shoulda gone to JiffiLube...

Oh man I feel that one ha ha. Amazing how the routine stuff can get so sideways.

I'm sitting on a decent "have a laugh at my expense" story to post, will get to it in the next couple of days.

[Touring_Sedan]

Ya I almost just used the 0W16 but everything I read said DO NOT PUT 0W16 in a 0W20 engine.. Other way is less likely to cause problems. Looks like lots of people do the 20 instead of 16 in the summer. But, running 16 in a 20 causes global disasters and zombie apocalypses. according to Toyota.. So back to the store I went hahahaha. Not gonna fuck up her new car..

0W16.... is that just apple juice? Makes my 15W40 look like molasses.

[SumJongGuy]

0W16.... is that just apple juice? Makes my 15W40 look like molasses.

I know. I ran 20w50 in my 1980s fun cars..

[Obstruction]

I poured 5 qts through a car about 40 years ago. Every time I mention an auto repair to my older brother the asshole still brings it up.

[SumJongGuy]

I poured 5 qts through a car about 40 years ago. Every time I mention an auto repair to my older brother the asshole still brings it up.

The way I look at it, it's not a MAJOR fuck up until you try to start the car before checking to be sure you didn't accidentally do that..

[Touring_Sedan]

The way I look at it, it's not a MAJOR fuck up until you try to start the car before checking to be sure you didn't accidentally do that..

Christ, they sell lawnmowers where you never have to change the oil.... you're probably good for at least 50 miles.

[highangle]

I poured 5 qts through a car about 40 years ago. Every time I mention an auto repair to my older brother the asshole still brings it up.

If a man builds a thousand bridges and sucks one dick, they don't call him a bridge-builder... they call him a cocksucker.

[SumJongGuy]

Christ, they sell lawnmowers where you never have to change the oil.... you're probably good for at least 50 miles.

Good to know. I'm way more lax when working on wife's lawn mower..

[Skidog]

Christ, they sell lawnmowers where you never have to change the oil.... you're probably good for at least 50 miles.

To me push lawnmowers are a "disposable". I put gas in em, and thats it. The zero turn gets a yearly, but I mean it's running maybe 20 total hours a season. Oil barely breaks down.

My push, 149$ jobber from home Depot. No motor wheels, all legs...sits outside all winter, never drain gas, never even looked at the oil since initial fill. 5 years now and she starts up every time. 10 prime pumps and 1 pull. When she dies l, I will take her to the local dump to be disposed of properly and buy another cheapo.

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[Thaleia]

Here's my Have a laugh at my expense story:



See that tiny piece of trim with the blue light in it? There's two along the front console, under the radio, on each side. That cost me $400 and countless hours over the course of a few months to install.

When I purchased the vehicle I had these two console lights as well as two under dash lights thrown in. When I received the car the lights were not installed as they were back ordered.

A month or so later they came in, so I dropped my car off at the dealer for the install. As soon as I got into their garage I didn't like what I was seeing, it was just busy chaos.

Was told it would be ready by the end of the day.

Called for an update that afternoon and they couldn't find any info on my car being there. They literally asked "are you sure you dropped it off here?" Pretty frustrating start. They eventually find it and of course no work was completed, we'll get to it tomorrow. So the next day I call around noon for an update, and no work had been done yet.

I escalate it to the service manager (I already have a history with this guy after overcharging my Dad and sending him off with a car that had a loose axle nut), who insists it will be done by the end of the day. Get a call later saying it's ready. Wheh ok.

Get their to pick it up, and HOLY SHIT NOPE, NO WORK HAS STARTED YET.

I made quite a scene in the reception area and during this they scrambled a tech to get started. Being a bit too full of pride (or just kinda dumb) I made the decision that these fucks aren't touching my car and marched into the service bays, took the keys and parts from the tech and drove out. (To this day I still flip them off when driving by)

"I will install these fucking things myself"

Get home and start googling the process. Oh fuck. The installation requires pretty much a full tear down of the dashboard, radio, console, shifter etc. There's precision drilling involved, running wires through impossibly tight spots etc. These videos explain the process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkPW8LhZHP8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtxTM9JNccY

Totally overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work to install some dinky lights, I put off this project until I bought a small sub and amp - where to tap into the radio I'd need to remove all that stuff anyways.

The installation sucked. It was so tedious and took so long. When (I thought) it was complete I reconnected the battery and started the car. New lights aren't working. Had to tear the dash apart again to go trouble shooting.

During this process I probably removed and reinstalled the radio and climate control unit five times. Nine separate wires go into the back of the radio. Two wires go into the climate control box. All the connectors for the wires are different, so it's pretty easy to tell were each one plugs into.

Except one wire, meant for the climate unit, can also fit into the radio. And if you do so, it will cause electrical issues and fry the gauge cluster. (learned afterward there's a service bulletin that all their techs have to sign off on about this issue, as it seems to happen often.)

As you've likely surmised, yes, I plugged that wire into the radio and fried the gauge cluster. Also blew a fuse that took way too long to identify. By now I'm on the third day of the install, my hands are a scratched bloody mess, my new lights don't work, my gauge cluster is toast, and none of the other lights in the car work.

Dealer price for a gauge cluster as $1500 plus installation, so that is not an option. Spent the next three months calling scrap yards and looking on ebay for a used cluster. That is a very difficult process because the cluster needs to be an exact match for it to work, ei Canada Model, Hatchback, AT, keyed ignition, no lane sensing, etc.

So months later get the cluster, install it and now finally everything is back to normal - almost. The console lights work but the under dash lights still don't. Oh well, they will remain that way because this project is over.

Looks pretty cool though. At night. When I'm basically never driving lol.

[MontuckyFried]

Here's my Have a laugh at my expense story:
....
So months later get the cluster, install it and now finally everything is back to normal - almost. The console lights work but the under dash lights still don't. Oh well, they will remain that way because this project is over.

Wow. Remind me never to complain about my car's electrical gremlins again. Good job getting it back in working order. But, yeah. Freaking dealers. Hate those guys.

[MontuckyFried]

Got balls deep on the old Volvo right before last weekend. Replaced main motor mounts on both sides and rear shocks. Shocks were a piece of cake, but the motor mounts? NOW I completely understand the astronomical quotes I got from the shops. Still. Job wasn't without it's complications (like dicking around with single stupid little 10mm bolt for like 2 hours), but still felt good to save like a grand on labor.

Parts ready to install


We're going in


New versus old. Old part was completely shot. Totally compressed and leaking fluid.


Car runs like a dream now. Thought it was going to rattle itself apart and engine sounded like it was going to blow up. Thank GOD it was just the motor mounts, though. Got lucky on that one really. Fresh shocks helped a lot too, but now I can tell the front struts need to be done. I feel really good about squeezing out close 200K on original suspension and motor mounts, though. Can't complain at all. Good job, OEM! They did well.

[SumJongGuy]

^^^Nice, I'm in denial and refuse to cough up what it would cost to have the struts in my 09 Forester replaced. It still rolls and handles well but the klunking on speed bumps is embarrassing. I took a look at the DIY option and it looks like a trip to the emergency room would be likely if I gave that a try. It's a up around 120K miles and the timing bent and assembly did get done. Has always gone through a lot of oil but the head gasket seems to be holding. Did have to have significant exhaust repairs done . All the joints rusted but main pipes and mufflers were still good. Planing to trade it in/retire her around 200K with a little luck,

[MontuckyFried]

^^^Nice, I'm in denial and refuse to cough up what it would cost to have the struts in my 09 Forester replaced. It still rolls and handles well but the klunking on speed bumps is embarrassing. I took a look at the DIY option and it looks like a trip to the emergency room would be likely if I gave that a try. It's a up around 120K miles and the timing bent and assembly did get done. Has always gone through a lot of oil but the head gasket seems to be holding. Did have to have significant exhaust repairs done . All the joints rusted but main pipes and mufflers were still good. Planing to trade it in/retire her around 200K with a little luck,

Dude. You got this. I hear ya on the danger, though. Saw this video on your Forest before and thought it was not a bad idea with his suggestion to take in your entire extracted spring/strut assembly to a local shop (call ahead of time) and they can swap out for a minimal charge. CAN I compress at home? Probably, but I don't have much confidence in my ability to not hurt myself either on this one, so yeah. Might be worth the like 20 or 30 bucks to just let someone else with the fancy upright spring compressor setups handle it. Cheaper than buying a (quality) spring compression tool anyway, I suppose. Anyway, that's my $0.02. You'll still save a fortune over taking your car into a shop for this job. What's the dealer/indie shop want?

[frorider]

Laughed at the oil change story….at 16 I bought my first car, first oil change, was pouring in fresh oil when I realized plug wasn’t in. Hey at least it flushed out things a bit more. Fortunately didn’t get on the floor of my dad’s clean garage.

Speaking of oil changes, the 1.8T VAG calls for 5W30 that meets VW 502.00, 503.00, or 504.00. Last time I did it (less than 5000 miles ago) I bought an appropriate synthetic for $7 a quart. Now the cheapest option at nearest store is $13 x 6 = $78. So I’d save money to have the local euro mechanic change the oil for me, which is weird.

[warthog]

Had some fun yesterday.

Ever wonder what a truck looks like without a front grill?

Before:


During:







You can see where I cleaned up the left side- right side has 26 years of road grime still there.



Finished Product:





Looked up a bunch of methods to do this and decided to remove the entire grill instead of trying to work rusted clips loose from odd angles.
Really happy I did that. Also gave me a chance to clean up everything behind the grill and scope out any rust spots, which there was only one spot of future concern.

[Obstruction]

^^^Nice, I'm in denial and refuse to cough up what it would cost to have the struts in my 09 Forester replaced. It still rolls and handles well but the klunking on speed bumps is embarrassing. I took a look at the DIY option and it looks like a trip to the emergency room would be likely if I gave that a try. It's a up around 120K miles and the timing bent and assembly did get done. Has always gone through a lot of oil but the head gasket seems to be holding. Did have to have significant exhaust repairs done . All the joints rusted but main pipes and mufflers were still good. Planing to trade it in/retire her around 200K with a little luck,

People hate on the pre-loaded struts but I’ve found the KYB brand to be pretty reliable. They eliminate the death defying spring compression and they make the job a snap. Would I use them on a newer performance car? Of course not. Would I slap the on an older beater? Shit yes! You can do it 2 or 3 times for what the dealer would charge to do it once.

Oh and BTW in June when I called my local Subi dealer about doing rear struts on my 14 forester they wanted to use pre loaded struts and springs and would charge 2 more hours labor to keep my existing springs and put in new struts (which were on perpetual back order). In general struts only are getting a little harder to find.

So I bought the preloaded KYBs for the rears and did it myself pretty simple job. Also have done them front and back on an 07 outback and an 05 Prius.

(The only reason I called them is they swapped the rear coils 2k miles and a couple of months earlier on a recall. I asked them about doing the struts and they said I didn’t need them. Prolly didn’t have any in stock to sell so it wasn’t worth the trouble more likely. Douche nozzles.)
.

[MontuckyFried]

People hate on the pre-loaded struts but I’ve found the KYB brand to be pretty reliable. They eliminate the death defying spring compression and they make the job a snap. Would I use them on a newer performance car? Of course not. Would I slap the on an older beater? Shit yes! You can do it 2 or 3 times for what the dealer would charge to do it once.

Nice. Looking at Rockauto, only strut assembly they have for my car is the FCS brand: https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=10108759
Bout $67/each. That seems suspiciously cheap. Anybody used FCS? Curious.
I've had great luck getting my Euro oem parts from FCPEuro and they have this strut kit for about $430 but no springs.
https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/vol...-kit-sachs-kit
Not sure which way to go, but being an old beater, that Rockauto deal might totally do the trick. Volvo's coming along! Have had a ton of repairs lately, but trying to get it over that 200K hump. Won't be satisfied until I do. Haha.

[Obstruction]

I was a little sketched out about the low price on the FCS too. I believe I used them on the outback though and they seemed fine.

I’ll do a little digging and see if I can figure out where I bought the KYBs from. I like to buy from Rock Auto but they were a little thin on the strut selection this summer as I recall.

[uglymoney]

KYB makes fine struts but don't buy their strut mounts for your Subaru. Every one of them that I used went bad, one at a time, bastards, and so I have had to replace the mounts again with Subaru OEM mounts which never go bad ever. Or just reuse those when you swap struts.

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[fatnslow]

https://www.ipdusa.com/products/2167...1200413-140131

Thess are quick struts but IPD is usally decent quality. It might be worth a quick call to customer service.

[MontuckyFried]

https://www.ipdusa.com/products/2167...1200413-140131

Thess are quick struts but IPD is usally decent quality. It might be worth a quick call to customer service.

Cool. Didn't know about IPD. Mine's an '08 and they didn't seem to have a loaded setup for mine, but saving the link anyway. Seems like a good resource!

After what ugly just said about his experience with KYB, perhaps I'll stick with OEM. Price really isn't bad for them anyway.