Maybe it was laid on too thick so now it's "grabby"? Can also try a different topper to reduce the static/stickyness too.

And yeah, hatch aero will make the rear of the car dirty faster... just hatch life.

How much horsepower is this cardboard box worth?

https://i.imgur.com/yZkOedG.jpg

Need to do a bunch of driving this weekend. Not wanting any trouble driving my tsx, I decided to put winters on the old mdx. I had 255/55-18" pirelli winters on the oe wheels with a 2009 date stamp. The tires came with the mdx, 70% tread but separated tread. I mounted some 2014 date stamped 235/60-18" michelin x-ice with about 60% tread. Better tires, narrower, same overall height, should be good.

The tsx drives well in the snow with new michelin x-ice snow tires, but the side streets here are all still snow on top of ice so it takes a second to get moving. The mdx on winter tires is a rocketship in the snow, very impressive.

Soul Performance just released mufflers that are supposed to go with their headers and cats for the 997... Decent tone but not as loud as I wanted.

https://snowcrunch.com/soulcans.jpg

Bought a Milwaukee mid-torque impact wrench with 600lb-ft of torque to work on my car over Christmas. It has been able to bust open every bolt/nut on my car so far including rusted ones on the lower control arms. It saves so much time.

Replaced the front lower ball joints (with OEM), rear toe arms (with Hard Race/Megan Racing pillowball mount) and the Bilstein HD suspension (with Cusco Street Zero A 16kg/mm front and 11kg/mm rear). Installed the Cusco front member brace and Eibach front sway bar with new Moog end links. The rear end links are totally busted and I have removed the rear sway bar altogether for now until new rear end links arrive.

God, this car handles like a dream now. It officially turned 20 years old back in December.

Waiting for the 4-pot OEM Supra calipers to arrive. Will slowly install the oil filter relocation kit, Defi gauges, and Cusco econn2 for coilover adjustment. I have more parts lined up than spare time. :(

The weather was nice enough to steal the garage from my wife for a couple days so I swapped out the alternator for a reman'd Denso for a Solara. They have the same rated output but the Solara has the slightly newer style plug so I made up an adapter harness and now in a pinch I can use an alt from pretty much any mid-80's to early 00's Toyota car. Even when it was working the old alt would fluctuate voltage a lot while driving, swinging from 13-15V, so far the new one seems to be rock solid at 14.6V all the time so it seems like it was a good call to swap it even if the old was wasn't totally dead. I also changed the yellow tint on the foglights to let a little more light through and reseal one that was getting water in it.

https://i.imgur.com/yFpNweu.jpg

And then because I'm basically a 14 year old with bills I installed this.

https://i.imgur.com/iLNjtEl.gif

I also found a couple of these while doing some cleaning so I figured I'd add a touch of class to the roof basket.

https://i.imgur.com/CovhFzK.jpg

I havent wrenched on my own cars since 2005/2006. This is the first time in like almost 20 years that i broke out some tools and decided to do my own oil changes.
I bought some kirkland 0w20 and 5w30, some toyota oil filters/crush washers from the dealership and went to town.

I realized that the dealership doesnt give a flying shit about the torque specs on the oil filter. it was on so tight i needed a breaker bar just to take it off. Pretty sure they used an impact drill to put it on or something.

I torqued it to manual specs of 18.5lbs and changed all the o rings. Felt good knowing the job was done right and the oil level was perfect.

https://i.postimg.cc/m2Yhq3hs/IMG-6133.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/BnQ3Z2ZH/IMG-6248.jpg

https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/m...w.ds#store=606

These crappy tire ramps are on sale. i picked them up and they are working pretty good.

Your families are loyal to Lexus brands :lol

ES, RX, SC, LC

yes ive converted them all to lexus. my pops used to buy nissans cuz they were cheap, my in laws all had german cars and now they are all driving toyotas. I even drank some of my own koolaid and gave up my ultra reliable italian car and took on this ratrolla instead.

I’m actually curious how one torques an oil filter? Do some have wrench attachments? I’ve always done the finger tight then a 1/4ish turn more. Whatever feels right, don’t forget to lube the o ring.

Oil filter socket

I picked this up from crappy tire for 11 bucks.

https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/m...p.html?loc=plp
https://media-www.canadiantire.ca/pr...1&imwidth=2100

I hand tighten. I have delicate desk job hands so I'll never over tighten.

Haha I actually have one of those. But just to loosen the previous man’s gorilla grip mess

I hand tighten it.

To undo it, screwdriver and a hammer. Stake it

So as soon as i start wrenching on my own cars guess what fails.

THE BMW OF COURSE!

the only German car left in our families and it fails in spectacular BMW fashion today. The 128i has been pretty reliable all these years, just minor things like (take a deep breath), timing chain guides, vanos, window actuator(s), valve cover gasket, leaky PS steering reservoir, windshield reservoir leaking and uhh i think thats about it. It always costs a few thousand each time at the dealership.

Today her dad drove it and it started violently shaking and check engine light was on. I had BCAA tow it to the dealership in richmond where i went to scan the codes just now.

P0303 popped up, engine misfire cylinder 3 and also these O2 sensors failed

MID:$02 TID:$07
Minimum sensor Voltage for test cycle(calculated) - O2 Bank 1 Sensor 2
Max: 1.09934V Min: 0V
Test result value: 4.99846V
FAIL

MID:$06 TID:$07
Minimum sensor Voltage for test cycle(calculated) - O2 Bank 2 Sensor 2
Max: 1.09934V Min: 0V
Test result value: 4.99846V
FAIL

Im thinking the either the spark plugs or coils went bad. Didnt have any tools with me so i didnt bother doing a coilswap/plug swap but should i replace all of them at the same time or just replace the failed one?

Might also be the fuel injectors, in which case is it wise to replace them all or just replace the bad ones?

You can test coilpacks by unplugging each individual one and seeing which one makes the car runs worse. I'd imagine N52 coilpacks are pretty much a dime a dozen and pretty easy to track down.

O2 sensors aren't exactly necessary post cat.

I didn't realize this until not owning a BMW for an extended period of time, but the "minor" things that seem minor to me, are abnormal for everyone else LOL.

If it's a misfire on cyl 3, switch the 3 coil with another coil, clear code, start car, see if misfire moved. If it did it's just the coil, if not start moving along the line. Plugs, injectors, vacuum leaks, etc.

Dealer called me this morning. Gonna do all 6 plugs and coils since it’s never been done on the car before (it’s a 2008). Less than 1900 bucks with the bmw owners advantage (for bmws over 10 years old they give a discount).

Not too bad compared to my maserati but still bad compared to the rest of the Lexus fleet who’s never heard of doing coils.

misfires... lol all my land rovers run 7 cylinders out of 8 at all times

I've had two coils go bad on my Rav4 V6. Fortunately they were on the exposed side of the V6 and so I was able to replace it easily myself.

But jesus $1900 is steep for coils and plugs. It's an I6 so I would imagine the coils and plugs are all fairly accessible? Or is it more complicated?

I was surprised at how convoluted/expensive replacing the valve cover gasket on the N52 is, which mine is seeping oil. Too used to the M20 on my E30 or the Miata, where its just a metal cover you pop on and off.

Dreading the day I need it done on my 128i.

dats sexy yray!

it doesnt look too too bad, but they only charging me 1.4h of labor to do this job and the coils themselves are kinda expensive at 190 bucks a pop x6 and plugs are 32 bucks x6.
So i guess i could have done it myself but really only saving the labor cost as i dont know where the heck to buy the coils other than from autowest.

facckkk amazon has it for 194 bucks for 6. :rukidding:

https://www.amazon.ca/Ignition-Coil-...%2C128&sr=1-10

RockAuto or hell even GermanParts.ca

Coils are easy on a German car, especially a I-6.

After watching a few 3D modeling tutorials on YouTube, I designed a simple camera mount to prevent the sunshade from hitting the rear dashcam when it goes up. It's pretty basic and inelegant, but it's my first design so I'm pretty proud of it.

I'll probably improve on its design to minimize the gap between the mount and the headliner, but I'll let it sit for a month or two first to before tackling it again.

https://i.imgur.com/5QCYUju.jpg

Link to the shade in action:
https://imgur.com/dXPkif2

Stealership being stealers again