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Everything posted by Bykfixer

  1. Here's how.
  2. Weather Tech makes good covers. Now if you want it to look all custom-like check out cover craft.
  3. What other items besides an oil change does a 60k service include? My truck for example reccomends tire rotation at 60, but not 50 since it reccomends that at 15k intervals. It also reccomends tranny fluid change at 60k based on every 30k. Neither one I'd opt for based on the truck sitting around but……yeah get rid of that motor oil since it may be loaded with condensation from warming and cooling. And I'd have them check my battery out. But some places include a battery check with an oil change/service.
  4. Good info, thanks. Way to hang in there. 👍
  5. Toyota auto tranny shifting solenoids quit working properly sometimes. That is a device that dictates when the transmission changes gears. It's not uncommon for those to go bad after a while. If it were solenoids you'd probably have a check engine light lit though. When you turn on the ignition confirm that the CEL lights up along with the other stuff. Could be your filter is clogged. If your tranny fluid is a dark brown or darker that's a sign of the fluid over heating. Could be you just need a fluid and filter change.
  6. I'd be so stoked if my car could look that bad someday. Nicely done and a great write up. Reference material for folks with black (or other dark color) painted cars.
  7. Try putting a bottle of system cleaner like BG or Sea Foam as it may be as simple as the ethanol residue has built up in the fuel induction system.
  8. Look uo universal tow mirrors at carid. com for choices.
  9. I had a Chevy truck that did that. It was the ground wire to the battery. There was a wee bit of naked wires at the battery terminal that got just enough corrosion on them to cause occasional issues. I snipped off the end of the ground wire, added an aftermarket terminal and wrapped any exposed wire with electrical tape. Later I removed the battery and hit the electrical tape with a heat gun like you would shrink wrap in order to make sure it was weather tight and never had that problem again. Never have something like a heat gun or fire near your battery to prevent "BOOM". Hopefully yours is something simple like that and not the ECU. But over time some of the solders at connect points of the ECU have expanded and contract enough times where a thing called fatigue resistance causes the solder to break. Think about bending a metal coat hanger over and over until it breaks. That's fatigue resistance and solders do not "bend" anywhere near as many times as a coat hanger would before it breaks. Best regards.
  10. I don't know who did it first but I do remember the early Lexus LS got two thumbs up for it's "adaptable" traction control. Years ago I drove dump trucks with 2 speed rear ends and if you did it right the thing worked very well. With a load going from say 2nd to 3rd (normal) seemed like 2nd to 4th. But if you could get it to go from 2nd high gear to 3rd low gear it was great. It was clunky as hell and if you didn't time it correctly you broke the rear end and the boss would get all angry-fied. We were told "do not use the hi/lo switch". Later 4wd trucks and SUV's came with so called on the fly 4wd switches. I never used those simply because I remembered that 2 speed rear dump truck thing and always figured it could happen with these modern gizmos. It looks like if you know treachery lies ahead you engage the AWD ahead of time with this vehicle. I got the impression if you turn on AWD mode while driving at 55mph you end up with a situation like those times somebody got it wrong on those old 2 speed dump trucks……broken down. (shrugs shoulders) I dunno.
  11. I cannot for the life of me understand why the lump would be in the middle when it would seem if there are any lumps they should be on the sides to prevent butt groove. Perhaps there is a padding that is meant to spread the load evenly like a pillow top mattress does, but like many pillow top mattresses some areas seem to sag and end up causing discomfort for some. Best of luck ladies. Sheesh.
  12. The ole clear coat fail dilema. Trying to cover is a waste of time. There used to be a product sold at Pep Boys and O'Reilly stores called TR3. They may still sell it. It's a product first sold in the 1980's to restore a dull finish. It has a chemical that literally melts into the clear coat and removes it a little at a time. It may take 5 or 6 applications to get that failed clear coat looking good but it can do it. I had a red Honda Prelude that looked pink from clear coat oxidation and had hundreds of blemishes that looked like snowflakes in the clear coat. TR3 applied and buffed off made the clear coat look pretty good. No yard stick shine like when new but the car looked red again. I applied it, buffed it off by hand a few minutes later and buffed it by hand the next day. Repeat as necessary. It took about 5 days total of apply, remove, buff the next day and repeat. But it sure made that clear coat look great. Apply a good wax every season and it'll stay looking pretty good. There's a big ole decal across the top that says "not to be used on clear coat". The best long term, low maintenance solution is wet sand the bad clear coat and reapply, but that too will come back off if not maintained. Cars are clear coated these days in order to stay shiney with just washing it. Used to be pre-clear coat days you had to apply rubbing compound then wax to get dull paint looking shiney. It's why the paint on old cars sitting around look like the paint was never shiney to start with after it was washed. Clear coat solved that issue, but it tends to fail at times.
  13. Your car has probably gone into limp mode. With the car idling check the transmission fluid level. It could be low on that. It could be a clogged filter in the transmission.
  14. A long time ago my company issued me a Chevy S10 that had 6,000 miles on it. It used 2-3 quarts in a 3 hour journey when driving on the interstate due to rings not seating properly. I needed that truck to get to and from my home each weekend. I bought the cheapest 10w50 high mileage oil Wal Mart sold at the time by the case. After a few weeks it used less and less oil. I did not change the oil or filter for 50,000 miles. At around 45,000 it had stopped using any oil. At 125,000 miles it ran like new and did not burn a drop of oil. I would never reccomend anybody ever do that but my point is the Toyota made engine is probably fine. But if you choose to buy it use a synthetic blend of high mileage oil, not pure synthetic. The high mileage oil has additives that help prevent worn out piston rings and valve seals from leaking. Me, personally I'd pass on that one. Bottom line here; if homey didn't even change the engine oil, he probably didn't maintain brakes, change coolant, and certainly not the timing belt. Last thing you want is a great looking car all broken down in your driveway. To add: the reason oil manufacturers reccomend mileage or time intervals is not to sell more oil. The interval is reccomended due to condensation building up in the crank case from heating and cooling. If dude drove it 5 days a week that would mean a heating and cooling engine at least twice each day. Many do not realize this but you can check the oil filler cap for a milky substance. If that is present the crank case has had water in it for a while. Smell the dipstick for gasoline smell to determine if that has damaged piston rings and intake valves. Done.
  15. Hope this helps. Realizing he is doing an RX with a V6 he shows how to get all of the slack out of everywhere but the tensioner area.
  16. In a word, yes. Try that first. Some say the crud stuck onto parts and pieces of a high mileage tranny are what keeps seals from leaking.
  17. The other day I was in Harbor Freight and saw they have sheets of 1000 and 1200 grit sand paper. Now with a 3m kit the 1000 grit disk is good for about 2-3 headlights. If you have 4 of those sheets of 1000 grit you could ensure your 3000 grit disk can be effective on all 4 lenses. They are with the sanding tools there. I wanna say 4 sheets was $7.99 but not sure. I was in there for a watch back press.
  18. Moved to the RX section where more potential buyers/viewers can see this one. I had an issue with another brand of vehicle that technicians worked on and replaced thousands of $ in parts (if I was paying). Since it was still under warranty it was on their dime. Turns out it was a loose wire that had not been crimped properly and was found by "the rookie" whose dad was a mechanic and taught him how to look for signs a computer would not find. Those guys have a million billion $ of diagnostic equipment but a simple issue is beyond most "technicians" grasp anymore. It's like nobody can do a long division math problem anymore simply because a computer does it for us. (shaking head back n forth). Another issue plaguing modern vehicles is the drivetrain is run by a computer. Example is you push on the accelarator and the computer is trying to achieve government mandated fuel mileage. For some drivers it works flawlessly. For some drivers, their natual accelaration habits and the computer just does not play nice together. Erratic shifting, stalling, and just down right ridiculous issues occur. When it was all mechanical things were great. But nowdays a computer is trying to predict too much for things to always go well. As soon as the computer thinks "hey it's Dave driving" and attempts to predict ole Dave's light foot or lead foot habits and Dave places his foot 3/4 of an inch left of the usual spot on the pedal…… uh oh, it aint Dave, what to do, what to do…… That same brand vehicle mentioned with the loose wire has a terrible shifting issue at times. "WHAM" it slams into 3rd or 5th or both. After the tranny was reprogrammed the third time the technician told me "it boils down to this tranny is no longer programmed to smooth shift then focus on mpg, it focuses on mpg then smooth shifting". In other words "live with it daddy-o". If I drive it like a crazy man, 0-60 in 4 seconds it shifts great. But to putt around town in Sunday driver/retired old guy mode? Oh it's awful.
  19. A Toyota was 2 and a Mazda 1. I would surmize Lexus is 3 because of all those extra creature comforts that break over time where the Toyota/Mazda would not have those.
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