Finished up my truck and got it aligned at a shop.

Replaced serp belt, engine air filter, cabin air filter, and a broken wheel stud on a 9th gen Civic.

Changed the oil in my wife's TLX.

[Edited on October 23, 2026 at 7:34 PM. Reason : i really wish I had a high enough ceiling for a lift]

10/23/2026 7:25:09 PM

Could you perhaps lower the floor?

[Edited on October 24, 2026 at 5:58 PM. Reason : Just saying that sounds like $texas]

10/24/2026 5:57:39 PM

Maybe eventually I will tear down my shop and build a bigger one. This is just what the last resident built back in the '80s. Coincidentally, he was a mechanic and did auto work out of the shop until his health declined and he passed away. I think he was a retired diesel mechanic who did work on the side in retirement. From what I've been told, he was a really good mechanic. Not long after I moved in, I actually had someone pull up looking for him to get some work done on their car.

The Transit 250 with the Ecoboost that I've worked on a few times came back today with an oil leak. He was thinking it was the valve cover again, which I just did a few weeks ago. I used a mirror to show him where it appeared to be leaking from the vacuum pump. I pulled the valve cover and got a better look at the vac pump and it appeared to be leaking from the joint with the cylinder head and from the vac pump housing split itself. Pulled the vac pump and found the seal to the head failed. Replaced the vac pump and put the valve cover back on.

Guy brought a 1998 Lexus ES300 with a bunch of parts. It had a leaky steering rack, blown out lower control arm bushings, and shredded boots on one CV axle. I replaced the rack with new tie rods and ends, lower control arms, ball joints, sway bar links, and CV axles. There was also an O2 sensor in there, but I saw no CEL and I didn't have time to hook up the scanner and dig into it. He didn't seem too worried about that. It does need a few other things. The temp gauge and oil pressure sensor aren't working and the windshield is cracked. 255k miles and a pretty clean car for the age. It's a shame they brought super cheap parts.

Neighbor walked over and said something was up with his riding mower transmission. I found the shift/speed control lever linkage had come loose from the frame. Looked like it should have a cotter pin or something, but there was no hole in the pin, so I just welded a washer on the end to keep it in the hole in the frame. Works great now.

[Edited on October 24, 2026 at 7:44 PM. Reason : mower job]

10/24/2026 7:42:03 PM

Went and looked at a Nissan Versa hatch with a P0303 cyl 3 misfire and P0420. Put new NGK plugs in because it had some amazon knockoffs. Swapped #3 coil to #2 cyl. Coils appear to also be cheap amazon junk. The miss followed the coil, so I ordered a Hitachi coil for it. Also an intake gasket because it has that stupid plastic intake over the top of the valve cover that has to come off and the gasket was in bad shape. P0420 may go away when the miss is fixed, but it also has an Amazon catalytic converter on it, so I told them not to get their hopes up.

10/26/2026 8:08:38 PM

The TL that was wrecked came back to fix some massive oil leaks. I did valve covers, cam thrust covers, and oil filter housing/vtec solenoid today. Pulled the oil pan and it's soaking in the parts washer overnight.

Went and picked up some wheels and tires for my sister's Yukon off Marketplace. She's got a cracked rim and is tired of dealing with 22" wheels.

10/27/2026 6:43:29 PM

Parts washer?

10/27/2026 8:30:10 PM

It's pretty much just a sink with a pump that recirculates solvent out of a faucet. You can soak stuff in the solvent in the bottom of the sink. There are fancy ones that circulate heated solvent to automatically wash your parts, but mine isn't like that.

10/27/2026 8:58:49 PM

Put the oil pan back on the TL. Degreased it the best I could. Still has a leak. I am pretty sure it's the front crankshaft seal. Just before he started bringing it to me, he had some jackleg mobile mechanic do a timing belt and water pump job on it. Supposedly that guy replaced the crank seal. Maybe he managed to fuck that up. Either way, the timing belt needs to come off again to get to that seal.

Also tried to diagnose an intermittent issue with the HVAC blower motor, but it wouldn't fail while I was looking at it. During that, I smelled something and found the AC compressor clutch slipping. That's an amazon clutch that I installed. I set the gap correctly, so not sure what the deal is. It looks like it has a bunch of axial runout. I told him I'd put another one on it for no labor cost. Unfortunately, I think Amazon and ebay are the only option for clutch only. I did present the option of a complete Denso compressor, but he went with an ebay unit.

10/28/2026 7:45:37 PM

Finally caved and installed a new audio head unit in my truck. Android Auto is nice to have. I was going to install a backup camera as well, but the cable broke while I was trying to fish it through the tailgate, so that will have to wait.

The RX350 came back with a CEL for exhaust VVT over retarded, but it was cleared by the time she got here. The oil control valve was doing its thing when I forced it from the scanner. Maybe the screen on the oil line is clogged. Told her I'd check and clean those when she brings it to fix the oil leaks on the oil cooler. Installed the spare tire hoist.

2002 Accord Coupe with a manual came by for some noise that she thought was coming from the power steering pump. Noise was gone when she got here. PSF was pretty low, so I topped it off. Looked over everything else and it's weeping a little coolant from the radiator tank seals, a radiator hose, and the water pump. Also leaking oil from the cam thrust plugs like every other old J series.

2011 Ford Edge came with a soft brake pedal. Master cylinder was replaced by some jackleg in an attempt to correct a soft pedal. I bled the HCU, boed at the wheels, bled the HCU again, and the wheels again. Still soft. Told them to bring it back when they can leave it for more diag. Didn't see any leaks. If the master cylinder is not bypassing internally, I suspect a bad HCU.

[Edited on October 29, 2026 at 7:50 PM. Reason : Jd]

10/29/2026 7:47:27 PM

finished up that backup camera on the truck.

10/30/2026 8:36:39 PM

Went and installed the coil on the Versa hatch along with new intake and throttle body gaskets. Ran like shit until I realized I left the brake booster vacuum line off Good to go now.

Inspected a Sonata for someone looking for a second opinion. Oil at the bottom mark after only about 1500 miles. Imagine that on a 150k mile Hyundai . CV axle boots slinging grease. Recommended CV axles and frequent oil level checks and top offs. Shit engine.

Inspected a Genesis G80. Intermittent P0420 code on Bank 1. Wrong brake rotor size on the front. One missing lug nut and two broken wheel studs. Pretty decent oil leak from the valve covers. Installed a spacer on the Bank 1 downstream O2 sensor. Ordered front pads and rotors and some lug nuts. He's gonna eventually do the valve cover gaskets too. Idled a little rough at stop lights. I think it may benefit from walnut blasting the intake valves, but I'll inspect those when I have the intake off for the valve covers.

[Edited on October 31, 2026 at 3:25 PM. Reason : fds]

10/31/2026 3:25:03 PM

Lol my hyundai don't burn nothing

11/1/2026 2:30:23 PM

Wait until you get some more miles on it.

11/1/2026 2:31:23 PM

I have dual catch cans set up i wonder if that helps

11/1/2026 2:50:42 PM

No, catch cans just collect the blowby so that it doesn't buildup on the back of your intake valves. They shorten the amount of time before you need intake valve cleaning. Catch cans do nothing for low tension piston ring failure, blowby, oil dilution, or oil consumption.

11/1/2026 4:27:57 PM

I changed out the spark plugs in my Cayman. 80k miles of use and the gaps had gone from .032" to THIS I was surprised the car could run like that.

I was prompted to do this because I was getting intermittent misfire warnings every few weeks. I couldn't feel misfiring through the throttle but cold starts were a bit choppy.



[Edited on November 2, 2026 at 10:34 AM. Reason : ]

11/2/2026 10:29:51 AM

I saw that in like 150k plugs lol

11/2/2026 4:51:44 PM

Installed the AC compressor clutch on the TL. The bolt that holds the outer clutch plate on had come out for some reason. Not sure if I did something wrong or what, but I didn't charge for the part or the labor. Used some loctite on the new bolt.

11/2/2026 6:58:41 PM

Dang man you really are an honest broker. Nice to know ppl like you out there

11/2/2026 7:01:23 PM

He's a young guy and one of my first "customers". I try to look out for him best I can. He's got his head on pretty straight and I have a soft spot for the 3rd gen TLs. When I rebuilt the front end, he was changing jobs and I just told him to pay the labor in installments as he could. I like doing work for him because he wants stuff fixed right and doesn't try to skimp on parts. I would've done that for free for anyone. Can't really blame that little bolt for coming out. Had to have been on me.

11/2/2026 7:30:33 PM

Replaced the steering gear on my truck. Something's still up with it, though. It felt right up in the air, but when the front suspension is loaded, it gets tight. So tight that the steering doesn't completely return to center on its own. I'm thinking something is up with the ball joints.

Front pads and rotors on that Genesis G80 that had the wrong size rotors on it.

11/3/2026 8:17:55 PM

Engine mounts, transmission mount, spark plugs and wires on my sister's Yukon with help from my brother-in-law. Exhaust manifolds have to come off to get those engine mounts out and only one bolt broke off. Welded a nut on it and it came out pretty easy. Also put on those four wheels I picked up for her.

Blower motor transistor on the Acura TL that I seem to work on every week. It would never malfunction in my presence, so that was a bit of a parts cannon shot in the dark, but it was cheap and easy. If it still has issues, I think it will have to be the blower motor unless there's some weird intermittent open or short on the circuit.

11/6/2026 8:48:58 PM

The RSX came back for some new seals on the VTC system to stop some oil leaks. Opened the hood and immediately saw a small spray of coolant from a hose on the PCV hose heater. Replaced that small coolant hose and fixed the oil leaks. Tensioner pulley bearing is absolutely screaming, but she's broke.

11/7/2026 8:40:29 PM

Oil change, air filter, tail light, and rear wiper blade on a Fiat Jeep.

11/9/2026 6:50:55 PM

Got the tires removed from my sister's old rims and removed the TPMS sensors so she can get them installed in her new wheels. Also did a little shop rearranging/organizing and listed some stuff on marketplace.

11/10/2026 8:56:08 PM