Vehicle Maintenace General

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My 250k mile EJ25D is leaking oil like piss now, the slick outside my house grows larger every day. The rear separator plate is definitely the main issue but there are a few other leaks I can't pinpoint. How easy is it to fuck up a total engine reseal at home? Do I just suck it up and pay my mechanic or pay with my blood, sweat, tears, and time?
 
Heather Mason 2 said:
My 250k mile EJ25D is leaking oil like piss now, the slick outside my house grows larger every day. The rear separator plate is definitely the main issue but there are a few other leaks I can't pinpoint. How easy is it to fuck up a total engine reseal at home? Do I just suck it up and pay my mechanic or pay with my blood, sweat, tears, and time?
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We both know the answer is to pay someone else. That way you can complain to someone when they fuck it up.
 
Sperg_rancher said:
I did my annual undercoat last week. A touch of fluid film on every spot on the body with rust..

Do you guys do undercoats? What works well for you? Bonus points if you live in an area that salts the roads.
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Started using Fluid Film in 2023. Still needs a few more years to get a good sample size for how well it holds up, but around here winter and road salt take a toll in short order and it seems to have prevented any noticeable rust on my newer car and stopped further rust on my old beater.

The label recommends putting it on battery terminals and I actually would advise against doing that. The stuff creeps so well that it got between the terminals and connectors not once but TWICE. That was an annoying couple of days.
 
I have a 1973 Dodge with an electric ignition. What components would I want to keep extras of in a faraday cage to insure I could quickly get if running again after an EMP? I know I would loose the alternator diode, voltage regulator, and the ignition box, anything im forgetting here?
 
DrakosBiz said:
Recently decided to have a crack at doing the spark plugs and rear shocks on my car. Firestone wanted to charge me 800 dollars for both when on RockAuto it's only 120 dollars for parts and a few hours of your time.
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you run into any issues? both of those are fairly simple, but can get real tricky real easily.

Heather Mason 2 said:
My 250k mile EJ25D is leaking oil like piss now, the slick outside my house grows larger every day. The rear separator plate is definitely the main issue but there are a few other leaks I can't pinpoint. How easy is it to fuck up a total engine reseal at home? Do I just suck it up and pay my mechanic or pay with my blood, sweat, tears, and time?
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depends on your tolerance for bullshit level, and your mechanic skill. pain the ass, but not hard hard. look up a guide online maybe?
 
Sammich said:
you run into any issues? both of those are fairly simple, but can get real tricky real easily.


depends on your tolerance for bullshit level, and your mechanic skill. pain the ass, but not hard hard. look up a guide online maybe?
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Spark plugs had no problem, shocks on the other hand took a long time to get done mostly having to get the bolts out at the bottom of the old shock. But once I got that off installing was no problem.
 
Bummer said:
I have a 1973 Dodge with an electric ignition. What components would I want to keep extras of in a faraday cage to insure I could quickly get if running again after an EMP? I know I would loose the alternator diode, voltage regulator, and the ignition box, anything im forgetting here?
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I think the EMP thing is a meme, but as a long time mopar guy I can tell you that you should also have a collection of ballast resistors. Keep one in the glove box. Also pick up a spare magnetic pickup coil (the part thats in the distributor) and a spare ignition coil. I have had one of everything fail on me over the years.

Also you should keep an eye out for New Old Stock ECU's (ignition box) or just start snagging them off old cars at Pick-N-Pulls, because 100% of the ones they sell now are total chinkshit trash. Everyone just repackages the same garbage that has been so cost reduced they even have a fake transistor now. Even better brands like Standard are MP are all the same chinkshit box just different colored paint. https://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/ams/how-to-tell-a-fake-ecu-from-a-real-one.315/
Real:
1765234692304.png 1765233860921.png
Fake:
1765233816286.png 1765233908588.png 1765234401565.png
The biggest tell is the fake transistor has no writing on it. Real ones have Motorola., RCA, ST, etc branding and part numbers of them.
 
I got a question. There's this Ford fiesta 2019 that some dealership is all but begging me to buy for the cheap. It's got something like 50-60 miles

How shit is it to maintain and repair?
 
Bummer said:
I have a 1973 Dodge with an electric ignition. What components would I want to keep extras of in a faraday cage to insure I could quickly get if running again after an EMP? I know I would loose the alternator diode, voltage regulator, and the ignition box, anything im forgetting here?
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Why do you think the radio antenna is on the exterior of the car? The car itself is a faraday cage.
 
Michael Wade said:
I got a question. There's this Ford fiesta 2019 that some dealership is all but begging me to buy for the cheap. It's got something like 50-60 miles

How shit is it to maintain and repair?
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How cheap is cheap? If it’s an automatic they are notoriously unreliable. I would run in the other direction if it’s an auto unless they’re absolutely giving it to you. Ford licensed the transmission design from ZF but made changes that make it a ticking time bomb for owners, despite warnings from their own engineers just to save a few cents per car.
 
Sperglord666 said:
I think the worst one was when he encouraged people to do "Italian tune up's" in their 4-cylinder daily drivers, which usually means running your car at really high rpms to burn off excess carbon. That's something that only works in much older vehicles and some performance vehicles (supposedly diesels as well idk).

For a daily driver, you're just adding wear to your engine and possibly causing especially retarded people to potentially blow their engine redlining in their driveway. And the benefit? You might knock some carbon loose from your spark plugs, which you could replace for $100 at most if you use OEM plugs.
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I have to disagree with you here.

Engines are engineered to run to redline so doing so isn’t going to make it blow up, particularly if you only do it once or twice a week. There’s minimal if any increase in wear, lugging your engine is far worse for it than running it to redline. The durability testing engines go through is much worse than what any owner is going to put them through. But running it to redline will not only blow the carbon off the plugs but also off the cylinder walls and piston rings.

On a related note, my brother has been taking his beater Honda to some mechanic. About a month ago it became undriveable so he took it in to this guy whom after a few weeks told him to come get it because he couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it.

It had codes for the knock sensor and vtec solenoid. Took it for a drive and it would just “buck” / fall on its face under any kind of load. So I checked the oil and it was low; it wasn’t building enough oil pressure for the vtec solenoid to actuate. According to the oil change sticker it was way overdue for an oil change so I took care of that with Restore & Protect and I replaced the knock sensor. The car was now drivable and it took less than an hour total.

Took the car for a spin and it had a slight misfire at the upper range of the tach and it’s still throwing the knock sensor code. I pulled the plugs and they were fouled to hell Bosch double iridium’s. ONLY USE NGK or DENSO ON JAPANESE CARS. In fact unless you’ve modified the car and are going to use an option that is tried and true, or you’re doing personal experiments, I suggest you only use what the car came with from the factory. This will save a lot of headaches.

Anyway I told my brother “I bet you never run the engine to redline.” “No I don’t. But those plugs have been fine for a year.” Well, that’s only because he doesn’t run the engine to redline. Had he run it to redline he would’ve known (at least I hope so) from the misfires that they were not right. After doing some perusing people who have used Bosch’s in this application have reported they foul easily and blowout at higher rpm.

After cross referencing the part number on the plugs what the mechanic installed weren’t even listed as compatible in this application at all! And for the record there’s nothing wrong with Bosch per se, but again only use them where they were original equipment such as in German vehicles.

Rant over. Thanks for reading.
 
drammamean said:
How cheap is cheap? If it’s an automatic they are notoriously unreliable. I would run in the other direction if it’s an auto unless they’re absolutely giving it to you. Ford licensed the transmission design from ZF but made changes that make it a ticking time bomb for owners, despite warnings from their own engineers just to save a few cents per car.
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It's probably automatic but what if it wasn't? Should I give it a shot? We are talking 8000 or less price
 
Michael Wade said:
It's probably automatic but what if it wasn't? Should I give it a shot? We are talking 8000 or less price
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Not unless you’re comfortable with a car whose transmission can let go at literally any time. There is no fix. You can replace the transmission and have it go out again in 10 miles. Google it if you don’t believe me. Why do you think they’re letting it go for so cheap?
 
Ok I have three potential purchase matches. Id like to know what is the least crappy of the lot.

2010 Toyota Prius​

​

2023 Toyota Corolla​

And

Certified 2022 Toyota Corolla​

 
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