Premiere Toyota service

Today, when I drove to Midway, a city 3 miles west of Columbia, I saw a gas station that offers 5 different grades of gas! Not only can you choose between 87 octane, 89, and

You can choose from 87, 88, 89, 90, and 91 all from the same pump. Never saw that before.

They also offer diesel. This station is next to the Midway truck stop.

A 3/8 inch drive torque wrench will probably be difficult to use for lug nuts. Your lug nuts probably need a 21 mm socket, which generally don't come in 3/8 inch drive. Also, a 3/8 inch torque wrench will have a shorter handle that doesn't give as much of a leverage advantage as a torque wrench with a longer handle. CW refers to clock-wise and CCW is counter-clock-wise.

For jacks and jack stands, with all other things being equal, one with a heavier construction will likely be more durable than one that is lightweight. Some lightweight or portable floor jacks do not have casters or only have a roller in front, making them more harder to position properly. A cheap floor jack may also be difficult to lower gently - when you release the valve, the car may have a tendency to drop suddenly instead of gradually coming down. My jack stands have a sawtooth design on the so you can just pull up on the head to raise it, with a release lever to lower the head. Cheap jack stands may have a pin that you insert in holes in the base and head. Not only is this less convenient to raise and lower, if you look at the diameter of the pin that is supporting thousands of pounds while you are underneath, the pin may appear kind of minimal. I prefer something that looks and feels rock solid while I am under the car and I want the adjustment to be very fast because you are still reaching under the car with the car supported solely by the jack while you are positioning the jack stands.

I rotate my own tires. I have 4 jack stands so that I can raise all 4 corners at once. The price of the extra 2 jack stands has long since paid for the price of a tire rotation. I have purchased the last several sets of tires at Sears.

With an impact gun and 4 jack stands, I can rotate the tires in about half the time it takes to drive to Sears so it is more convenient to rotate them myself, and I can keep an eye on the brakes myself.

IMO, paying extra for lifetime wheel balance is a waste of money because wheels rarely go out of balance once they have been balanced.

I rotate my cars' tires myself because I can do it in about 5 minutes as opposed to the 15 minutes it takes to drive to Sears, 1 hour waiting for the car to be worked on, and 15 minutes driving back. The local Toyota dealer is about 3 minutes away so less time is spent in transit, but I'd still have to wait 30 minutes to a half hour for the work to be done. As for doing the job properly, accurately, and with high quality, tire rotations are not rocket science, and I'd trust both Sears and the local Toyota dealer to do the job properly.

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That's what I thought. I've thought for years that the need to balance tires is rare, but then one of the techs at Walmart the other day was telling me that I should have the tires balanced every other rotation, because tires easily become unbalanced, like from dips into potholes and other reasons.

I know I had my old Tercel's tires balanced at Ewers once, and they were never the same again.

I'd rather use SL than SM, SM standard allows less ZDDP.

nate

Depends on the tire. A good quality tire like Michelin will stay in balance nearly forever. I have had tires go out of balance when they wear however.

nate

Have you done your "first ever" oil change yet?

I can't wait to hear how much preparation you do for your first time getting laid.

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Mark A., you're quite a good guy. I like you.

I've been with 17 different women this year. Last year I was with only 3 women the entire year. But when I turned

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I've never been with that many different ladies in one year before, but, like I said, I kinda went crazy in Year 40.

There are more than one modality involved with vibrational issues with tires.

If you hit a pothole and damage a tire, you may induce vibration because you have changed the rotational symmetry of the tire. (What used to be round is now eggshaped)

You will probably never be able to apply weights and help this sort of problem, even though it be able to bring the tire/wheel into static or dynamic balance.

For about a year, I've never noticed a change in the coolant level of the reservoir. Long ago, I marked the level with a pen, and I've never seen it deviate from that mark.

But after the dealership replaced the Mobil 1 with the Pennzoil Platinum, I noticed the next day that the coolant level had dipped by about 3/4 of an inch.

So I marked the new lower level with a pen. I'm not sure what has caused the change in coolant level, which used to be constant for the last year. Maybe it was the change in oil brands, or maybe it was that the oil tech put in exactly 4 quarts of Pennzoil Platinum this time whereas, in the past, he had always put in at least 4.25 quarts of Mobil 1. The last time, it was more like 4.4 quarts.

He always returned the unused oil to me, so I know how much oil was put in each time. I added an extra 0.25 quarts of oil to see if that would return the reservoir's coolant level to the first pen mark, but it didn't.

I also see that the reservoir's coolant level also varies now depending on if the engine is cold or hot. At cold startup, the coolant level is always lower by about a half-inch than at hot shutdown.

But the cold startup level is 3/4-inch lower than it used to be. And I don't think the level used to vary with the engine's temperature.

Coolant level? No way changing the brand oil affected the coolant level unless they managed to overheat the engine (unlikely).

The coolant level should have always varied with engine temperature, unless you had air space in the cooling system.

Ed

Maybe that's it. Sometimes mechanics would open the radiator cap and inspect the fluid instead of looking at the reservoir. Air was probably released upon opening the cap.

Sheesh. Changing your oil once every 6 months doesn't constitute "prolonged contact" even if you're clumsy enough soak your arms up to the elbows in the stuff. Get a freakin' GRIP on reality, folks!

Dumb, dumb, dumb, if you own anything older than 5 years. Learn what the ratings mean and what specific additives your engine needs (which might not be present in oils with the latest ratings).

Five years? You are way off.

Maybe if you own a passenger car that is 15 years old or more, then you "might" need to worry about the lack of additives in some modern oils.

The change in oil brands did not have anything to do with the oil level.

Then pen you used caused the plastic to become glycophyllic and absorb the glycol in the coolant, and the plastic deformed, making it appear as if the coolant level was lower when the pen mark just moved up. ;-) If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale.

Seriously, coolant does evaporate over time, and if the engine was run hot, then some may have evaporated. If someone opens the radiator cap while the coolant is hot, some may spill out.

Thanks for mentioning that Walmart sells Stanley tools.

Picked up a 60-piece Stanley ratchet and socket set at Walmart today, since I needed a 10 millimeter socket for the Camry's air filter housing.

The socket set meets or exceeds ANSI specifications and was darn cheap: $30. It includes a 3/8" drive pear-head ratchet, both 3-inch and 6-inch extender bars, 1/4" adapter, SAE and Metric 6-point sockets from 4 to 19 mm, and other stuff. It's swell. The ratchet has a quick-release and the set comes with a lifetime warranty. Made in China of quality materials. Stanley sells good tools.

Also swung by Sears to pick up the 1/2" 150 foot-pound Craftsman torque wrench that regularly sells for $80 but is on sale until Saturday for $60. I hope the Craftsman was worth it, because AutoZone and/or O'Reilly sell a 10-to-150 foot-pounder for $25 to $30. The Craftsman goes no lower than 20 foot-pounds, so the cheaper AutoZone wrench actually has a wider range.

I wonder if I should have bought the $70 Husky from Home Depot that goes up to 250 foot-pounds, or the $130 Harbor Freight torque wrench that is digital, described at

Peeked under the chassis today, and spotted the jack points Ray was referring to. The front-end jack point is not covered by the protective plastic cover or a panel as someone else was worried about.

The rear-end jack point is at least 3 feet inwards from the rear bumper.

I think I'll lift from Ray's 2 jack points using a floor jack (all of which seem to raise in an arc), but place the 4 jack stands underneath the four double notches along the car's side rails. Do you think that's a workable, acceptable idea, Ray? I'm guessing the jack stands won't bend the notch seams since the stands do no arc-like raising, just supporting.