Maintenance

What did you do today?

>Changed the Rear diff fluid

Smells like shit and is pretty dark. Wonder how long the previous owner let it go. Drives like a dream.

Visited mum. Said her car was driving a little fucky in the mornings, asked her when last service etc
>Never done it before
So bought pretty much all the fluids and did flushes/bleeds.

Hopefully no seals shit the bed in the next week.

Did it feel like a new car? Whats the mileage?

Just an ordinary 96 Legacy BG4.
Drives like a gutless piece of shit, could do with new rear bushings/shocks and told her that's out of my 'being nice' budget.
I think it was the AT fluid, she drives stop/start (Does about 8000km a year), seems a lot better after that.

Stop start is always rough on an AT. All of the unnecessary upshifting and down shifting. I bet that woke it up a bit.

I didn't think a rear diff fluid mattered for driving feel as much as it apparently does. Power delivery feels WAY better and more linear.

That actually looks pretty clean, when its got silver flakes in it/your diff is hot as fuck after a short drive is when its really bad.

Also it smells like shit becuase they use sulfides for preservatives.

That was after it settled for a bit. It came out pretty dark. The plug was pretty caked with shavings, I don't really know whats normal though.

Nothing today, I have tomorrow off so I'll be trying to do my control arm.

Yeah. Probably about 15 traffic lights and as many intersections on her way to work, I'm sure it warms up by the time she gets there 10km away.
>Maybe

As for the diff, sure.
Back when I had my S1 Stagea, the previous owner used it as a milemuncher (Oh god the gas). First weekend did _all_ the transmission fluids from front to back.
Overdrive actually worked, tight turn shudder stopped, ATTESA worked (Clogged filter), brakes wouldn't threaten to F&F the floorpan when stomped and 1st didn't slip in 2nd for anywhere near as long as it did. The ATF was dark brown. DARK BROWN. Fuckin gross.

It's so hard to not be a fluid elitist but goddamn it feels nice to flush the manky stuff out.

When I changed mine it didnt smell like anything at all and was so thick I could turn the bucket I drained it into upside down for 5 seconds without spilling any.

...

What was used as oil, some GL-5 Chiquita ?

the hell if i know, but it took over 3 hours to drain it out.
When I accidentally dropped the steel drain plug into the bucket it just sort of floated on the top.

Silver lining, I guess.
Otherwise it might have sucked your arm in.

Thats so, so bad.

Replaced all the fuses in the fuse box. Most the electrical problems thus far have been because of my ignition problem, but i figured it wouldn't hurt to change them all out regardless.

Did it do anything? I'd check for breaks in the harness

Nope. Like I said, it's mainly the ignition.
>Wrong key for the car given to me
>Can't start it one day because of this
>Call locksmith, they break a new key inside the lock
>Can start car and such now, but I have to use a screwdriver and turn it from START to ON manually
Most the problems have been me not turning it far enough back to ON, so it's stuck between the ON and Start, which makes things like the wipers/heater not work. As I found out earlier, tilting it back just a bit further makes those work fine. Planning to get a new ignition ordered in the next few days.
Just gunna fix this sucker up just enough so I can save up in a year or two and get a hard top coupe version, since I'm not a fan of convertibles in general.

>DR650
Yesterday, I tightened the timing inspection bolt, since I apparently did not torque it properly last week when I checked valve clearances. I also adjusted the carburetor (needle clip position, drilled an additional 3mm hole in the slide, adjusted idle and mixture). Today, I rode it around and then shrekt it and myself at low speed about a mile from home. Got grabby with the throttle and ended up crashing on my right side. Hit my shoulder pretty hard (thank God for gear) but didn't break anything. The bike has a few new scrapes and a dent in the tank, handlebar mounts are bent, but otherwise it is fine. DR650s are tankbikes.

Changed the up pipe and down/dump pipe exhaust gaskets on my wrx, re sprayed the bumpers on my corolla and gave it a good clean will hopefuly sell it within a month

I'm a pleb, so I learned how to read a dipstick. Scheduled a wheel rotation for next monday after putting 6000 miles on the car. Had an oil change 6 months after I bought it because I didn't hit 6000 miles in that time. Might do the next oil change myself as I have a jack and some jack stands. Would it be a big deal if only the front was on jack stands for an oil change?

Changed accessory belt and rewired my fog light on my shitbox e36

Replaced a blown out CV, trimmed the bump stops to get more travel

>Would it be a big deal if only the front was on jack stands for an oil change?
That's the best way to do it.
Also do the tire rotation yourself.

Is that not how everyone does it?

I have ramps

Found out why there is a squeak when I engage the clutch, seems that my slave cylinder is struggling a bit. Will replace it

Changed the tranny fluid in my 2005 Mountaineer. I'm pretty sure I drained the fluid that was put in at the factory. Shit was BLACK. Not burnt red, but BLACK. The stopper in the bolt was rusted in place, had to heat it up to get it out. No more jerking and chirping when shifting now.

What's a decent mileage for doing tranny fluid?

20,000

i dun diddly did done do did fix my aftermarket exhaust that was rattling on the heatshield by one: removing the heatshield, and two: sandwiching a spacer flange between the two actual flanges.

i'm also in the process of fixing a coolant leak in the thermostat housing for a second time

in addition to those, i'll be adding some oem splash guards that didn't come with the car when i bought it

Hey look it's the goblin queen from Diablo 3

I'd replace the gasket and when you get the old one off, clean and polish the mating surfaces really good

Fixed the idling issues I've been having on my '86 civic and now it runs great. It's been sputtering out after I started it up again after driving shortly before and I've just been putting it off.

That's the last major thing I've been needing to do. I bought a tachometer today and I'll try to have that installed before this weekend but work is fucked. She's starting to come along as a nice little daily tho

Also I don't have those Mexican wheels anymore. I got the OE steelies powdercoated slate gold and put em on. Rides so much better now.

Changed the diesel fuel filter, after which you have to purge the air and stuff.

Any mine has 200,000 on top of that.

how did it drain then?

sometimes i slide the pan under the oilpan and undo the drainbolt without even putting the car on jackstands

re-heatwrapped the lower part of the ae86s headers after i got the oxygen sensor bung welded in
should stop running like a bag of dicks now

>TFW one of the axles just wont come the fuck out of the housing so i can rebuild the diff

did rear rotors and pads on the rear of the ae111
still waiting on the powder coaters for the brembos so i can put the on the front

The G got some
M E A T
E
A
T
today.

Tires are pretty good for cheap. Just need to make it to end of year bonus to get real tires.

>haven't changed oil for WAY TOO LONG
>oil light comes on if I turn too hard
>won't have time til Sunday to do anything about it
hang in there little buddy

gear oil always smells fucking disgusting

...

My vents defaulted to the dash-defrost, no floor or forward air
Cause? Open vacuum leak
Traced the vacuum lines
Found the fault to be a dry rotted 3" piece of rubber tube that connected the check valve to the vacuum reservoir

Vacuum reservoir buried so deep in the A/C system/firewall that there was no way to reconnect a new tube

>time for a bypass!

So, a trip to the junk yard
A $3.00 replacement vacuum reservoir and some tubing
I just wedged (no screws or tape, just pressure fit) the "new" vacuum reservoir between the windshield washer fluid tank and battery mount.
Connected the tubes...
...and Success! All my vents work again

Counting the trip to the junk yard, the job took 10 hours

I had to take off:
>the dash
>the A/C control head unit
>the passenger airbag
>passenger firewall guard
>the entire outside wheel well body quarter panel
>the battery
>the battery tray and mount
>the A/C blower box

All because a $0.05 piece of rubber turned to shit
Thanks Ford!

Tell me about it user, i had about a quart of it pour on my face when my dad tipped the engine to get it in.

You poor, poor man.

>here we go

Complete TLC tune-up involving
>plugs/wires/dizzy & cap
>coolant/oil/freon/P&S replacement with new oil filter and sending unit
>fuel filter which was complete bitch to get out and was filled to the brim with rust and good ole georgia clay
>transmission, diffs, and t-case oil change

So much more to do. Will post more with pics if interested

>asked her when last service etc
>>Never done it before
Sasuga America-kun, tell me more about how it's the manufacturer's fault when German cars break down despite having changed the oil once back in 2006.

>I just wedged (no screws or tape, just pressure fit) the "new" vacuum reservoir between the windshield washer fluid tank and battery mount
At least zip tie it in place, come on.

Hey guys, didn't want to make a new thread for this.

I handle the real basic maintenance (fluid changes, etc) on my 2003 Rav 4 automatic, and change my own oil sometimes. However, out of nowhere, it started acting up this week

My friend normally handles everything more intensive, but he's out of town for a few days more. Wondering if these symptoms warrant a more immediate visit to a mechanic.

street driving
>check engine light
>occasional engine misfires
>rough idle following a misfire
>low RPM (600-ish) but yesterday dropped to 500 or even a bit below which prompted me to make this thread
>several instances of stalling following RPM drop when stopped. i switch to neutral at a stop which kicks the RPMs back up to the 800-ish range.

freeway driving between 30-70mph
>no real issues besides check engine light

I know that generation of Rav4s had problems with the ECMs, but I have receipts from the prev owner showing that the module was replaced prior to selling it to me, so I find it unlikely that that's the case.

Initial thought is a lean misfire, but as I said earlier I'm pretty much a novice (plan to help out my friend and see if I can't pick up some basics this time). Couple google searches imply possible internal manifold gasket problem. What say you, Veeky Forums? Can I hold out for a few days, or should I get this checked out ASAP?

Also
>California
Can't get a code reading from Autozone in these parts.

Forgot
>lack of power/acceleration at low speed. might be worse on incline or at higher temperatures, not sure at the moment.