What have you done to your car today?

Cabin A/F on the XT5 - under 1 minute.
Took me longer to find the sharpie to date the filter. (yes, do this cause when the guy at the quickie lube says you need a CAF you can ask him what the date is on the one installed)

I do this too, just for my own knowledge. And thanks for the reminder, just swapped them today on both cars.
 
I replaced the plugs on my daily driver. I gotta say I was scared of doing this mainly due to the fact that the vehicle feels and drives so good that I just didn't think about maintenance other than oil and filters changes mainly because my car reminds me to do so. Over 200K miles later while preparing to do an oil change it dawned on me that I've never replaced the plugs or coils. I got so worried that I started researching on how to remove stuck plugs to prepare myself. Then I decided I will try to remove the coil packs and see if I can loosen the plugs. If it gave me many kind of struggle then I will just bring it to a shop and let them deal with it. Lo and behold the coil packs popped off without a hitch and I was able to loosen all 4 plugs with no issues. That allowed me to go to Auto Zone to get new plugs and the job that had been stressing me out turning out to be a very easy 10-minute job. Here's what the old OEM plugs with 208K miles on them look like from my 2015 Mazda 3 with the 2.5L 4-cyliinder engine.
View attachment 266585
LOL, 208k is a loooong time for spark plugs.

Those are likely NGKs and they seem to be really good with just coming out of heads without a problem with whatever plating they use on the threads. Similar situation at 105k, I bought plugs and the connectors in case things broke but everything came out like buttah.
 
LOL, 208k is a loooong time for spark plugs.

Those are likely NGKs and they seem to be really good with just coming out of heads without a problem with whatever plating they use on the threads. Similar situation at 105k, I bought plugs and the connectors in case things broke but everything came out like buttah.
I don't know what magical plating they use on the threads of their plugs but I was very pleasantly surprised at how easy they came out. Those iridium plugs don't use anti seize compound on the threads.
 
Anyone purchase a private party car/truck with a title that still has a lien while trying to obtain a loan of your own?

Purchase Price $60k
Guy owes $38k
I'd want to finance $40k and pay $20k cash.

Credit union wasn't much help other than providing a Private Party Purchase Letter to get notarized and explaining how difficult it is to do this.

I'm trying the bank currently holding his loan but haven't gotten a reply yet.
 
Installing a 200W solar panel on the roof rack to support a full-time 45L fridge.

Yesterday I made brackets for the panels, primed and painted them too.
IMG_1555.jpeg

Today I stripped the cargo area trim in preparation to run cables from the roof to the batteries under the rear seats.

IMG_1578.jpeg

Also installing sound deadening material on the cargo floor before everything goes back in.
 
Last edited:
Apparently I dubbed this weekend car maintenance weekend.

B1 light popped on for the wife's Civic so oil change and tire rotation. Also got an engine temperature warning light in traffic a few days ago so replaced the radiator fan and refilled the coolant. Seems to be the culprit.

And for my car I was putting off the spark plugs because...Subaru.

1000002915.jpg

Woops.

1000002916.jpg
 
Little victory, considering it was exhaust related…

The wife’s ride has been making a rattle at idle lately. I knew it would be a heat shield, but didn’t have much idea what I was up against because I have never paid much attention to the exhaust on her car.

I crawled under and was happy to see it was the most accessible heat shield that was missing one bolt. After digging through my bolt supply I found a M6 that would work but of course no nut.

So off to depot, I decided to get stainless for my future sanity and 2x since the other bolt was barely hanging on. Back at home, as I was trying to line everything up to get the new bolt into hole 1, the second bolt just fell right out. I was glad I got the extra at that point, and double glad that it just fell out because I wasn’t looking forward to wrestling it out.

In all my history of touching exhaust this was by far the best outcome, total time under the car was maybe 10 mins.

IMG_4783.jpegIMG_4784.jpeg
 
My son's 2016 Cruze

Couple of lessons -

when putting air in a tire, and the TPMS doesn't respond
perhaps they aren't programmed correctly.....
at least I got to use my programming tool - right pressure reading now.
wonder if it was reading the spare?

When ordering brakes and rotors - ordering a set of brake pads gets you all four pads.
ya gotta order two rotors, otherwise another trip to the store will be required -
where you will find they don't have a second then send you to another store.
Ps I sent my son. I would have realized it...

So the brake job was interesting - they used red loctite on the caliper carrier.
Couldn't get my gun on one of the bolts, the breaker bar just fit...f-bombs were launched, no fingers damaged.

I had never seen this before - the pads and rotors were so worn, the caliper couldn't extend any farther.
there were no squealers on the stock pads. These were rears and have mechanical parking brake.
Is this a thing?

old vs new - 60k miles

1757278730101.png

I guess if I had the tool to twist the piston back in, it would go much faster than a pair of channel locks.....
 
Last edited:
Installed wireless Android Auto/Carplay in the new-to-me '15 SLK250 for $138. The stereo in my lightly-optioned car uses an external NAV made by Becker that slides into a slot in the glove compartment. This device (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D2ZBHZ6Y) replaces it and runs the factory screen. It also adds an input for a rear view camera, which the car does not have.

Took about 5 minutes of fooling around. Obviously, resolution isn't the best and navigating with the knob is a little fiddly (not a touchscreen) but...cmon! $138.

slk250_android_auto.jpg
 
Car's been getting bouncy, time to replace the stock Struts/Shocks. This would have taken 1/10 of the effort if the first 100k wasn't spent on salted NJ roads in the winter. Since I knew this swap was coming I sprayed the mounting bolts and nuts with penetrating oil and had zero issue there. Stock bolt under the car wasn't even rusted.

Driver's side upper mount looked like it was part of the Titanic. Had to hammer it out, all the metal inside destroyed, all the rubber gone. Never made a peep going over bumps.
Passenger side mostly OK. WTF?

Of course I didn't order replacement mounts when I ordered the shocks as Rockauto doesn't even sell them, $$$ from the dealer. Amazon had a pair to me the next day for $23. Luckily I WFH.

Maybe next week I'll tackle the front struts... I don't have any free nights/weekends so doing this 20 minutes a time while taking a work break.


2025-09-11 12.37.38.jpg
2025-09-11 12.37.45.jpg
 
Back
Top Bottom