What have you done to your car today?
- Thread starter Patrick
- Start date
if that is a regular concern of yours doing this job, then you need this
The Best Quick Oil Drain Plugs - No-Spill Systems
Upgrade to convenience with our Quick Oil Drain Plug—no more messy changes or stripped pans. It effortlessly replaces your existing plug;
nospillsystems.com
i put them on all of my cars and it makes life sooo much easier (and cleaner)
qclabrat
Well-Known Member
Interesting, do they last the life of the car?if that is a regular concern of yours doing this job, then you need this
The Best Quick Oil Drain Plugs - No-Spill Systems
Upgrade to convenience with our Quick Oil Drain Plug—no more messy changes or stripped pans. It effortlessly replaces your existing plug;
i put them on all of my cars and it makes life sooo much easier (and cleaner)
i havent had one fail yet and i had one on my 13 until it got totaled in 21
Red Mosquito
Formerly RLB the Scrapple Boy
Good to know, I’ve thought about this or a fumoto for a while. I just never got around to making the purchase. To me the biggest sell is not having to handle a giant saucer full of used motor oil. I like the option of drain hose right into the used oil can.
This should work fine if you use the 5qt jugs that the oil typically comes in. I use 5 gallon buckets to collect my old oil so they dont fit under the cars very well (unfortunately for me)
I get the low profile ones for everything and they protrude about the same as the standard drain plug. So not only are these sealed internally, but the dust cap has an o-ring seal (it sometimes requires pliers to remove but thats still minor IMO)
Replaced the battery in the XT5
8 years old, 80k. not bad. It was starting to do low voltage things - sensor errors mostly.
6 bolts. 2 for the bracket, 1 for the clamp-down, 3 for the battery terminals.
Watching the YouTube vids, you'd think I'd be out there for 4 hours. Took about 20 minutes cause I was able to locate the deep 10mm quickly.
One guy disassembled the junction block. Another removed the positive terminal first, while he connected another battery to keep from losing settings.
I was waiting for him to weld the ratchet to the cross brace.
when done, it did ask me to cycle the front windows, and had lost the current radio station - but not the presets.
Yes, I put the cover on the junction block before connecting the negative terminal.
8 years old, 80k. not bad. It was starting to do low voltage things - sensor errors mostly.
6 bolts. 2 for the bracket, 1 for the clamp-down, 3 for the battery terminals.
Watching the YouTube vids, you'd think I'd be out there for 4 hours. Took about 20 minutes cause I was able to locate the deep 10mm quickly.
One guy disassembled the junction block. Another removed the positive terminal first, while he connected another battery to keep from losing settings.
I was waiting for him to weld the ratchet to the cross brace.
when done, it did ask me to cycle the front windows, and had lost the current radio station - but not the presets.
Yes, I put the cover on the junction block before connecting the negative terminal.
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mfennell
Well-Known Member
Drained a frothy mixture of trans oil and coolant out of my 360 this morning.
The 360 has a heat exchanger for the trans oil. People call it a 'cooler' - and it certainly does keep the oil below a limit - but I think it's actually more useful to warm the oil for easier shifting. Regardless, they all eventually fail, allowing the two fluids to mix. In retrospect, I had some symptoms for a few days. It was grinding into 3rd unless I double-clutched and I was thinking I might be shelling out for a rebuild. I don't know why my mind didn't jump immediately to the heat exchanger.
Fortunately, I didn't put too many miles on it. The level was below the fill port. I've heard of the transaxles getting filled completely.
The exchanger is inconveniently situated under the intake. It's possible to remove it with the intake in place but I'm going to take the opportunity to change out the intake gaskets. AW Italian, a shop in Eatontown, stocks an upgraded exchanger and the other necessary parts.
The 360 has a heat exchanger for the trans oil. People call it a 'cooler' - and it certainly does keep the oil below a limit - but I think it's actually more useful to warm the oil for easier shifting. Regardless, they all eventually fail, allowing the two fluids to mix. In retrospect, I had some symptoms for a few days. It was grinding into 3rd unless I double-clutched and I was thinking I might be shelling out for a rebuild. I don't know why my mind didn't jump immediately to the heat exchanger.
Fortunately, I didn't put too many miles on it. The level was below the fill port. I've heard of the transaxles getting filled completely.
The exchanger is inconveniently situated under the intake. It's possible to remove it with the intake in place but I'm going to take the opportunity to change out the intake gaskets. AW Italian, a shop in Eatontown, stocks an upgraded exchanger and the other necessary parts.
What's the difference?
so after nearly 14 years and now 199,000 miles....my Focus had what I would call its first major failure.....was driving down 10 like a month ago and hit a huge pot hole near the railroad tracks.....the ABS/Traction control lights went on then back off....I was like ugh.....in the time since then the lights got more frequent and the car developed pull to the right....the steering wheel was now off center....I thought maybe a rear shock had blown, or maybe the sway bar broke, etc. Soon enough, the rear tire starting hitting the inner fender and im like, ok, something is f'd up here....so I got the car up on jack stands and crawled under as it wasnt anything super obvious from the outside
turns out a piece of the subframe has cracked where the sway bar mounts
So I did think about how I only paid 18k for this car 14 years ago...maybe its time to send it to the graveyard....but dammit...its a 5 speed, the motor still doesnt use a drop of oil...generally, everything in the car works great and it still gets 30-35mpg. So I was like, well, let me check car-part.com and see what I can find.....
So I found a junkyard in andover who had nearly the same car....they will unbolt the entire rear subframe/suspension (6 bolts) and sell it to me for $200.
so fuck it...ill give it a whirl. We'll see how this goes.
turns out a piece of the subframe has cracked where the sway bar mounts
So I did think about how I only paid 18k for this car 14 years ago...maybe its time to send it to the graveyard....but dammit...its a 5 speed, the motor still doesnt use a drop of oil...generally, everything in the car works great and it still gets 30-35mpg. So I was like, well, let me check car-part.com and see what I can find.....
So I found a junkyard in andover who had nearly the same car....they will unbolt the entire rear subframe/suspension (6 bolts) and sell it to me for $200.
so fuck it...ill give it a whirl. We'll see how this goes.
JDurk
Well-Known Member
Please put this project in your blog.
Replaced broken sway bar end link. You wouldn’t think that a piece of plastic would be so hard to remove from a rusted bolt. 
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Replaced the BFG KM3s with Falken WildPeaks on my truck today. Heard a strange new noise while driving away from the tire shop. Then realized that I haven't been able to hear the motor over the tire buzz for the past four and a half years.
I couldn’t hear the clunk from my front end because I’ve been driving with a rusted through exhaust. Replaced last week. Hence the new end link today.