project Fumbler's Gone To America - Transplant

[Fumbler]

It is in single figures Fahrenheit, there is snow on the ground and 5" is due, with blizzard conditions, tomorrow into Wednesday. How is my reliable winter WBOD doing?

Ah.

While driving to the DIY store the oil pressure light flickered every time I pulled away from the lights or a junction. I pulled the dipstick and found there was no oil on it. I took the emergency quart out of the back seat and dumped it in the engine. I checked again, still nothing. Uh oh. 3 quarts later (the engine takes 4 quarts/1 gallon, all US measures) and it's showing nearly full again. In summary, the engine almost lost/ate all of its oil. Fantastic. 

Meanwhile I was wanting to see which accessory had the grinding noise/whine. After watching some videos on YouTube it looked like releasing the belt tension would be easy enough. Expectation:

Reality:

19mm tensioner hex rounds over completely with a 19mm socket. Bloody brilliant.

I am now very cold and very fed up.

[Fumbler]

I'm going to book it in with Toyota tomorrow and they can look the entire vehicle over. It's too damn cold to stay out there for any period of time and it's only going to get worse, especially with more snow on the way. Our local dealership is pretty good and the service advisor is a family member, which helps.

Here's every fault I've found so far:

• Clunk and sway in the rear when the car goes over any bump or ridge in the road
• Rear speakers don't work
• A/C button on the heater console broken
• Accessory belt old and cracked
• Distressed bearing noise coming from the engine bay
• Tensioner release now broken
• Excessive oil loss (oil change is due, last done at 298000 miles)
• Vehicle tracks to the right
• Nearside arch liner broken and shredded by the wheel
• Passenger footwell has a lot of cold air blowing in from somewhere
• Battery is spanked
• Check engine light on due to P0136
• SRS light on
• Horn doesn't work (suspecting clock spring is broken, would tie in with airbag fault)
• Headlights have severe cataracts
• Interior is filthy
• Paint is destroyed in multiple places
• Outside temperature sensor is broken
• Electric tilt on the seat doesn't work
• Badge on the front grille is missing
• Likely other things I've forgotten about.

Service advisor told me their multipoint inspection involves connecting a scan tool up to interrogate the computer, putting the car on the lift and inspecting all components. At $100 that seems like good value so we shall see.

 

[Fumbler]

The snow arrived! More snow than predicted actually. The Ranger snow gauge says about 6" fell. 

The engine is very unhappy now. I dumped more coolant and and some liquid head gasket at it and if anything, it made the problem a lot worse. The action of moving it 400yds out into the street turned the oil into mayo and the 4th cylinder now does nothing.

After everything was ploughed I limped it back into its parking spot, looking very sad

 

 

~~~~~~

 

Anyway, on to a car that 'works'.

I threw the Camry at Toyota and got them to do a multi-point inspection. The aim: diagnose the clunk in the rear and the coffee grinder noise up front. They found the following:

• Registration lamps dead,
• Engine oil leaks,
• Transmission oil leaks,
• Accessory belt old and cracked,
• Coolant looks like shit,
• Air filter dirty,
• Horn not working,
• Water pump is the source of the noise. We'll get back to that one.

I was then handed a nice printed report sheet containing this info, generic reasons why each fault should be fixed and an eye-watering cost breakdown-

 

"Oh cock", I said. $69 just to fix the plate lights alone?!

There was no mention of any issue with the rear end. Instead, the rear shocks and suspension components received a "pass". There was no mention of the SRS light either. I thought they hooked a scan tool up? I pressed the advisor (who's a family member) to explain and he said the technician looked and there wasn't anything obvious. They did complement how nice everything looked, mind you. I can't remember the explanation as to why the SRS light wasn't noted but when I mentioned it, Jack The Advisor put it and the horn problem together and said it's likely a faulty clock spring in the steering wheel. Clock springs are also expensive AF, one from Dorman is $320. Since this was a general, multi-point inspection the clunk, fluid leaks and the horn/airbag fault would be subject to a separate diagnosis I'd need to pay for. As for the P0136 code, they recently had a similar Camry come in with the same issue and the battery was equally ruined. They put a new battery in, cleared the code and nothing has come back since. We're hoping for the same situation here.

Knowing how much they'd charge for all the work, I opted to grit my teeth and do it myself. In the cold.

 

Day 1 (insert Law and Order sting here)

I'll preface this whole saga by saying the front end of this car was designed to go together easily, not come apart. I wish, in the nicest possible way, for the committee responsible for engineering this to take a long walk off a short pier.

After enough motivation (I watched a bunch of YouTube videos showing how simple* it is) I coughed up $90 for a water pump, ventured outside and drained the coolant. Most of it went straight on the ground instead of the bucket. It was also green instead of red, and not much came out. Great start. Next up was fighting, once again, with the blesséd tensioner. By this point the "dummy nut" was barely hex shaped at all, but seeing the cost of them I decided to keep on fighting. I eventually won, using a 1/2" ratchet, conduit and a breaker bar as a lever

 

 

Let me take a moment to explain how evil this engine bay is. Most manufacturers use a spring on a pivot. Toyota, for whatever reason, doesn't. They use this peculiar hydraulic assisted spring shock absorber thing...

...with a bracket made of soft, spreadable butter, leading to this:

Or worse, this!

Luckily I was spared the pleasure of this happening. The same can't be said for dozens of others, however. This is an incredibly common issue.

Additionally, there is almost 3" of room between the side of the engine and the wheel arch. Everybody in YouTubeland uses a breaker bar, but evidently they use one with a tiny swivel because mine, with a regular size socket attached, interferes with car body and A/C plumbing. Said plumbing also gets in the way of the breaker bar's swing when you're close to releasing all tension. Once you invent enough new swear words, the tensioner grants you the ability to roll the belt off the alternator pulley. Incidentally, you have to maintain a lot of pressure on the bar while rolling the belt off, otherwise you're at square 1. Do not pass go, do not collect your £200. Not even my old 850 was this bad.

With the tensioner fight over I could then tuck the belt away, dismount the alternator and undo the water pump. To be honest, removing it was fairly easy (relatively speaking), except I had to take my gloves off in order to have any kind of dexterity.

 

Four 10mm bolts and two 10mm nuts later, it was off and more green coolant promptly fell on the floor.

I'm not too sure why but the old pump was glued on with RTV. All the new pumps I found for sale came with paper gaskets. However, this did prove it had been replaced at least once before. Rather curiously, it didn't sound all that gravel-y when I spun it by hand. After cleaning the gasket surface with a green Scotch pad, I carefully folded the new water pump into position and began tightening everything up. Toyota was kind enough to provide two studs to hang everything on to make installation just a little easier.

I would like to say installation was as easy as removal, but alas, no. I think I dropped the 10mm socket 4 or 5 times. The first few times I dropped it, I was lucky; it fell straight down and hit the ground. The bottom two bolts were the most difficult pair. The forward one isn't bad at all as it's rather open. On the other hand, the rear bolt has a rib in the casting right next to it, meaning I had to move my ratchet in strange ways to get it tightened up.

Then I dropped it.

The ratchet and extension buried themselves between the subframe and arch liner, while the socket broke free and lodged itself between the engine and the subframe. Those 10mm sockets, man. Cue lots of panicked crawling about in the slush and ice trying to find it. With my hands now frozen solid, I mustered up enough energy to carefully  finish bolting the pump down, install the pulley, reinstall the alternator (that was fun*) and prepare myself for re-tensioning the belt. I went back inside to warm up and eat dinner.

To further explain how evil the engine bay is, the 2AZ-FE belt layout is below, with the 850's layout for comparison:

Note the 850 engine's convenient placement of the tensioner, PAS pump and belt routing. Having messed with the belt, tensioner and PAS pump on an 850, I can say it's not very bad, though the alternator location is inconvenient for replacement purposes. Swedish engine design for the win. I can't tell you how long I spent just trying to lay the belt in position (with one hand wedged between the engine and body) so I could loop it over the alternator. With how little clearence there is between the accessories and the wheelarch, movement is wished for, not guaranteed. While I was dealing with the water pump the belt flopped out of the power steering and A/C pulleys. One would reasonably expect there to be room to guide the belt around the power steering pulley, but there isn't. The back of the engine bay is just as cramped as the side. Direct access from the top is impossible because of the top engine mount, then power steering hoses just above the pulley. I'd have to break my arm in 3 places to reach in that way. At least the A/C pulley was relatively simple to deal with.

I reckon I spent more time faffing with the sodding belt than I did replacing the water pump itself. It was about 8:00 by this time and the only light I had was from my phone and a streetlight. As it happened, my husband came out to see how I was doing, so I asked him to hold the phone while I made one final push to get the belt aligned and instal-

*clonk*

Bugger. The hex is now completely round.

 

Day 2 "Lord have mercy"

Welcome to automotive hell. Everything actively fights against you, everything is hard. We hope you enjoy your stay. Hell's forecast for the next few days is the following: fucking cold, and only getting worse. Below 0 Fahrenheit at night with windchills in excess of negative 30. We're talking so cold you'll get frostbite within 20 minutes. I love the north.

In light of this I decided to pull all the stops and Get It Done. Step 1: wring tears out of my pillow. Step 2: go to the motor factors and get my wallet reamed out for a new tensioner and accessory belt. Step 3: go to YouTubeland and watch how easy* it is to replace the tensioner. Put basically, you have no choice but to remove the nearside wheel and splashguard.

So that's what I did. Fortunately the spilled coolant removed most of the ice and slush around the vehicle. Win? Maybe?

Oh look, new struts. Nice. Enhance!

Oh look, Fram filter. Not nice. I'll deal with that at some other time. I've been informed they're a pain in the neck to remove. Deep joy. Anyway, YouTube told me I should remove the bottom tensioner bolt first, because it's the easiest to access. I had to use an impact driver to remove it, however. It was on there toight. Toight like a toiger.

Then on to the upper bolt. This should summarise how that went:

It was awful.

Firstly, there is no room for anything aside from spanners. Once I had my spanner slid over the bolthead (don't worry I dropped it several times), I could only rotate it about one flat before hitting the cylinder head. If I got ambitious and tried to start further down, the spanner would hit the water pump, if that makes any sense. After it was loose enough to unthread by hand, I had to squeeze my hand below the head and between the block and body, which meant I could only use my thumb and forefinger while everything else was being crushed and/or cut into.
Secondly, once the bolt is fully unthreaded, it's so long it hits the body and can't be withdrawn from the tensioner bracket. I then spent ages shimmying the tensioner around trying to get the bolt above the frame rail and A/C pipework so I could extract it and let the tensioner fall beside the crank pulley. Turns out, I couldn't, but I was able to wedge it between the rail and the pipework and got it moved just enough to release.

I win.

During lunch I took to YouTube again and they recomended I remove the shock absorber spring thingie to make everything install a lot easier*. Okay, I will.

Easier, more like less difficult, and only slightly. The tensioner bracket went in first. Without the spring installed, it made folding it into place a lot a easier. Of course, since the bolt had to be put through the bracket first, getting it into position was still a struggle, especially as there's no clearance to do it from underneath. Then threading the bolt back in was a massive effort. See also- unbolting the old tensioner. The bolt is fine thread so the slightest amount of cockeyedness will make it bind up, which happens often since you have to crush your hand into a stupid shape to reach in there. After I got it finger tight I then finished it off with a spanner, turning it one flat at a time. I believe there is a torque spec for that bolt, but I'd love for any Toyota engineer to tell me how the ever living fuck I'm supposed to use a torque wrench on it, without pulling the engine. With that struggle over, I then put the 'spring' back on. Despite only being two bolts, it was just as aggravating as everything else thus far. The bolthole on the tensioner for the spring is juuuust above the opening in the wheelarch with, surprise surprise, no clearance. Back to using spanners again.

Now it's time for the belt. Easy right? It's just a belt innit. All good yeh?

Nope.

I don't know if the belt had been on the shelf for ages or what, but it was significantly creased and reluctant to be anything but folded up. By now, the night was drawing in, temperatures were dropping and I didn't want to stay in Automotive Hell any longer than I had to. I decided to put my phone down, quit taking pictures, and get the bastard fitted. After many minutes trying to keep the belt from folding inside out, getting it over one pulley only to have it fall off another, and other general faffing, the time had come to put the new tensioner to the test. Was it also made of the same soft, spreadable butter the old one was? Will it snap like many reviews of the product said it would? Would the vehicle burst into flames? I pulled on the 'breaker bar'...

No, the tensioner wasn't made of Lurpak

No, it didn't snap 

No, the car didn't burst into flames, though that would have been entertaining.

Yes, that's right. The belt is Tensioned™️

I then refilled the engine with the correct kind of coolant. I wonder if it's strawberry flavoured?

Once full-ish and the system stopped burping through the funnel, I started the engine. Had the noise disappeared? Was the water pump the source of the coffee grinder-come-rock crusher? Were the good folks at Toyota correct? Is the Pope Hindu?

No the Pope, isn't Hindu.

No, the water pump wasn't the rock crusher in my engine bay.

No, Toyota was not correct.

No, the noise is still there.

Looks like I'm staying in Automotive Hell for a little while longer...

~~~~~~

Jings, that took a while to write up. My Baldor clock says it's past my bedtime 

I'm now going to get to bed and softly weep.

[danthecapriman]

Shit!!

What a bastard that looked. Fair play to you for persevering with it in that cold weather too. 
If it helps, at least now you know you’ve got a good cooling system if nothing else.

Did you check the alternator pulley/bearing wasn’t the source of the noise?

[Datsuncog]

Aw dude, that's a right old pain.

All you want is Excellent Toyota Reliability [TM] and then this happens... graaah.

Sending consolation wishes from afar and hoping that this soon comes to a satisfactory conclusion without the loss of any digits to frostbite!

[Fumbler]

14 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Shit!!

What a bastard that looked. Fair play to you for persevering with it in that cold weather too. 
If it helps, at least now you know you’ve got a good cooling system if nothing else.

Did you check the alternator pulley/bearing wasn’t the source of the noise?

It was a bastard indeed. But, like you say, I did actually fix things which were broken. The alternator does squeak when turned by hand. I'm fairly confident that's the source of my problems.  I was told recently it was pulled from a newer Camry and then grafted in (while the alternator is the same, the plug is different so it was spliced in). That was over 100000 miles ago and the alternator was from a scrap vehicle.

11 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Aw dude, that's a right old pain.

All you want is Excellent Toyota Reliability [TM] and then this happens... graaah.

Sending consolation wishes from afar and hoping that this soon comes to a satisfactory conclusion without the loss of any digits to frostbite!

All I want for Christmas is RELIABLE TOYOTA VEHICLE [TM].

 

As mentioned in the Grumpy Thread, all my aggravation over the last few days became very insignificant when I woke up to the news a friend of mine had been killed on the hard shoulder waiting for his bucket truck to be towed away. He was 26 years old, a firefighter and ran a small business in public safety. His pickup, which he and his two coworkers were sat in, became sandwiched between an artic and the bucket truck. The impact was so immense he was thrown from the vehicle and went to the great fire department in the sky. His coworkers are in hospital, one with life-threatening injuries. Fortunately I have a busy week of out of state work coming up, so hopefully things will improve. He was well known to many of us and we're all rather shaken up by it.

To distract myself I decided to some number crunching on the Camry. I bought a tensioner, accessory belt, water pump and 2 gallons of coolant. Unfortunately I threw the coolant receipts away but the rest of the materials came out to $318.05. For Toyota to change the water pump, coolant and accessory belt, I was going to be charged $1017.28. Lord knows how much extra I would have been charged for the tensioner. In other words, I saved a lot of money doing it myself, even if it still hurt my bank account. I tried calling my service advisor and went straight to answerphone, hopefully I get a response. For all the trouble this misdiagnosis caused me I'm hoping I can work something out with Toyota, but we shall see.

[Dyslexic Viking]

6 hours ago, Fumbler said:

All I want for Christmas is RELIABLE TOYOTA VEHICLE [TM].

 

Considering that the car is 21 years old, is high mileage, and appears to have been run on a shoestring in the past, problems are to be expected no matter what brand it is.

But well done for persevering and fixing it in the cold I know how miserable it is.

[Fumbler]

1 minute ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

Considering that the car is 21 years old, is high mileage, and appears to have been run on a shoestring in the past, problems are to be expected no matter what brand it is.

But well done for persevering and fixing it in the cold I know how miserable it is.

Quite so. As with the Ranger, had I known what it had been through, I probably wouldn't have bought it. I just didn't expect it to break almost immediately but that's on me. Fundamentally speaking I think this vehicle has alright underpinnings and resale value. I just hope I'm not wrong.

[Sunny Jim]

Sorry to read of the loss of your friend. Hope you manage to get the Toyota sorted without too much more physical and financial pain.

[danthecapriman]

Sorry to hear about your friend @Fumbler, that’s an awful thing to happen.

[Fumbler]

12 hours ago, Sunny Jim said:

Sorry to read of the loss of your friend. Hope you manage to get the Toyota sorted without too much more physical and financial pain.

 

11 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Sorry to hear about your friend @Fumbler, that’s an awful thing to happen.

Thank you, gents. It means a lot, seriously. The donation campaign for the family and injured has now surpassed $10k. The community support is immense.

Today's going pretty alright all things considered- I even had a call back from Toyota! "Come on in", they said, so I did. Unfortunately the battery now requires a jump pack to function, but we all could've predicted that. I brought the replaced water pump with me and, once inside, demonstrated how the pump wasn't the cause of the issue. We then started the car up and my advisor agreed it's likely the alternator and it's getting checked by a different service tech as I write. I fly out for work tomorrow so hopefully this visit lends some closure to this shit sandwich repair.

[hairnet]

300 bucks takes the piss

https://www.autodoc.co.uk/gh/17573124?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&tb_prm=20325421606&gshp=1&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20325431449&gbraid=0AAAAAoWFwrdRnjX883O5MiLikjfaAasS_&gclid=Cj0KCQiAuvTJBhCwARIsAL6DemiMiUzSf0Q2lyP5Gus7k9bH_AaS7i_c6UKW4Q3rADkmSxZHG1cJhCEaAnXgEALw_wcB

theres all sorts from 20 quid to 100 - gsf one was 96

how long would the autodoc one take to usa tho

[Fumbler]

12 minutes ago, hairnet said:

300 bucks takes the piss

https://www.autodoc.co.uk/gh/17573124?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&tb_prm=20325421606&gshp=1&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20325431449&gbraid=0AAAAAoWFwrdRnjX883O5MiLikjfaAasS_&gclid=Cj0KCQiAuvTJBhCwARIsAL6DemiMiUzSf0Q2lyP5Gus7k9bH_AaS7i_c6UKW4Q3rADkmSxZHG1cJhCEaAnXgEALw_wcB

theres all sorts from 20 quid to 100 - gsf one was 96

how long would the autodoc one take to usa tho

Funny you should mention that. I spoke with the PO and there's a scrap car with a complete column and good clock spring. Win.

[hairnet]

so alternator then

 

[Fumbler]

Ha ha ha ha...

So The Man From Toyota, He Say:
"It's not the alternator I'm afraid, your A/C compressor is totally fucking fucked, m8. Big time" and proceeded to show me. Lo and behold, there are metal filings and shrapnel stuck to the magnetic clutch. The smoking gun was the noise would shut up when the compressor engaged. An OEM part would cost north of $600. Aftermarket parts were anywhere from $230 to $400, bad product reviews included. The book time for the job is around 3.5 hours. In total that work would cost me $1150. Oh dear.

After being given the quote I told advisor Jack I'd make some phone calls and give him a decision in a couple minutes. He said that was no problem, so I called my friend in Kentucky (who facilitated purchasing the car), and explained the issue. He contacted the PO and then told me I'll have a known-good, used A/C compressor waiting for me, when I fly down next week, for free. Smashing. The previous owner, being a mechanic himself, went on to explain a large part of the book time is down to evacuating and recharging the A/C system. Actually changing the part is no worse, if not easier, than any of the other work I have done, and it doesn't take much time. Well that's not too bad I guess. Here's hoping for warmer weather in a week's time.

Jack was very embarrassed and apologetic for the misdiagnosis and subsequent frustration. He offered compensation and we came to an agreement. It looks like I'll be getting a free oil change and an AC tune up once I'm done with work for the year. The diagnostic session today was also FOC.

After I left I went to buy a battery. Apparently the -5 degree weather last night was the final nail in the coffin; it swelled up and went bye-bye. The new one only cost me $133 fitted, with a 3 year warranty. I really can't complain with that.

[captain_70s]

What exactly prompted the move to 'Murica?

Everybody I've known who has left seems to have been pretty pleased with having been able to escape...

It does seem there is no such thing as a cheap car over there, not for the last 15-20 years anyway. What the UK would consider scrap is still worth 4 figures easily.

[Fumbler]

2 hours ago, captain_70s said:

What exactly prompted the move to 'Murica?

Everybody I've known who has left seems to have been pretty pleased with having been able to escape...

I met my husband a few years ago while visiting friends and, thanks to him, he was able to bring me over last year. For over a decade now, the majority of my friends have been Americans. I had a lot more luck just communicating and forging relationships with Americans my own age than I did with classmates at home. Marriage was the main reason for emigrating. With emigrating also came better career opportunities, higher quality of life and more freedom. 

2 hours ago, captain_70s said:

It does seem there is no such thing as a cheap car over there, not for the last 15-20 years anyway. What the UK would consider scrap is still worth 4 figures easily.

It really depends on where you are in the country. I live in Wisconsin which is part of the salt belt. A large part of a vehicle's value, up here, is how much/little rust there is on it. Whereas in more southern states, things like drivetrain condition, paint and interior condition take greater precedent because the vehicles won't rust away nearly as quickly. If you go as far as southern Indiana (and below) you'll start to see old vehicles being scrapped because the drivetrain is actually worn out and used up, instead of the body being destroyed by rust. A good portion of traffic down there are older vehicles including vehicle generations which are practically extinct up north.

Using the Camry as an example, it was teetering in the edge of being demo derby food down in Kentucky, because of the moon mileage, the ratty look and some surface rust on the underside. I bought it for $1500. Meanwhile in Wisconsin - ignoring the engine - the going rate for a Camry as clean as mine is roughly double. It's also got the badge effect going for it too. No, seriously, when I was looking for pickup trucks, anything Toyota badged was several grand more than a GM or Ford, and still selling, even if the chassis had holes in it.

Because inspections don't exist in the majority of the country, people are free to drive a vehicle until A: they get too scared to drive it anymore, B: the drivetrain wears itself out, or 😄 something major broke, preventing them from driving any further. There are very few places which will declare a vehicle unroadworthy because of a failed emissions test, even fewer who inspect the vehicle's structure, for better or for worse. I think this is one of the main reasons why people hold onto their cars longer. I doubt this'll change and if I'm honest, I don't miss anxiously waiting for MOT results one bit. I do see some right sheds on the road, mind you.

Just like it is in the UK however, the days of a cheap but solid vehicle for under a grand have long gone. I've been told any less than $1500 for a vehicle usually means there's something very wrong with the vehicle, or the title has been mucked with.

Hopefully this makes some sense!

[danthecapriman]

13 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

I met my husband a few years ago while visiting friends and, thanks to him, he was able to bring me over last year. For over a decade now, the majority of my friends have been Americans. I had a lot more luck just communicating and forging relationships with Americans my own age than I did with classmates at home. Marriage was the main reason for emigrating. With emigrating also came better career opportunities, higher quality of life and more freedom. 

It really depends on where you are in the country. I live in Wisconsin which is part of the salt belt. A large part of a vehicle's value, up here, is how much/little rust there is on it. Whereas in more southern states, things like drivetrain condition, paint and interior condition take greater precedent because the vehicles won't rust away nearly as quickly. If you go as far as southern Indiana (and below) you'll start to see old vehicles being scrapped because the drivetrain is actually worn out and used up, instead of the body being destroyed by rust. A good portion of traffic down there are older vehicles including vehicle generations which are practically extinct up north.

Using the Camry as an example, it was teetering in the edge of being demo derby food down in Kentucky, because of the moon mileage, the ratty look and some surface rust on the underside. I bought it for $1500. Meanwhile in Wisconsin - ignoring the engine - the going rate for a Camry as clean as mine is roughly double. It's also got the badge effect going for it too. No, seriously, when I was looking for pickup trucks, anything Toyota badged was several grand more than a GM or Ford, and still selling, even if the chassis had holes in it.

Because inspections don't exist in the majority of the country, people are free to drive a vehicle until A: they get too scared to drive it anymore, B: the drivetrain wears itself out, or 😄 something major broke, preventing them from driving any further. There are very few places which will declare a vehicle unroadworthy because of a failed emissions test, even fewer who inspect the vehicle's structure, for better or for worse. I think this is one of the main reasons why people hold onto their cars longer. I doubt this'll change and if I'm honest, I don't miss anxiously waiting for MOT results one bit. I do see some right sheds on the road, mind you.

Just like it is in the UK however, the days of a cheap but solid vehicle for under a grand have long gone. I've been told any less than $1500 for a vehicle usually means there's something very wrong with the vehicle, or the title has been mucked with.

Hopefully this makes some sense!

I think you’re very fortunate to have left the UK tbh. I’d literally give anything to get out of it and move to the states (if you know any single American ladies please pass my details on😄) 

This country is an overpopulated miserable shithole with no prospects for normal people. Rules and red tape for absolutely everything. You just can’t get away from it all over here anymore unfortunately.

[Dyslexic Viking]

13 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

Rules and red tape for absolutely everything.

It's not just like that in the UK, most of Europe is the same.

[Zelandeth]

59 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

I think you’re very fortunate to have left the UK tbh. I’d literally give anything to get out of it and move to the states (if you know any single American ladies please pass my details on😄) 

This country is an overpopulated miserable shithole with no prospects for normal people. Rules and red tape for absolutely everything. You just can’t get away from it all over here anymore unfortunately.

Funny seeing this sort of thing mentioned twice in a few days in two different posts, but it seems relevant mentioning our findings here too.  We seriously looked at this ~15 years ago.  Half of the family here is from the US, so it was pretty much a roll.of the dice as to which side of the pond we'd aim for.  As it is most of the relations/friends over here have passed on or buggered off abroad, so there's even less tying us here whereas we have plenty of family and a load of friends around the Lansing/Detroit area.

The killer for us though was the cost of healthcare.  Just the basic recurring medications(nothing particularly unusual - my husband's epilepsy is about the most left field) for the four of us would be well north of $1500 a month - that's on top of a three figure sum every month for health insurance.  Paying near enough what we currently do on our mortgage for the known, recurring healthcare costs just wasn't going to fly.  My very ordinary asthma inhalers were several hundred dollars apiece.  Those are 15 year old numbers as well so it's probably worse now.  The realisation that you could do something as routine as badly sprain an ankle to the point of needing it checked out could land you with a five figure bill was and still is frankly terrifying.  You start looking at the numbers and suddenly you realise why you hear stories of badly wounded car accident victims absolutely begging ambulance crews not to take them to the hospital.  One of my friends over there is a first responder and can confirm that absolutely happens - usually at least a few times a day.

There are a lot of upsides though and it does feel a much more pleasant and friendly place to be than here.  Though the summer would kill me - not that it's much different here now we routinely have 25C plus for weeks on end anyway.

Car wise, some of the things you see in daily use in and around Lansing though are legitimately terrifying.  Nothing wakes you up like being overtaken on the Interstate by a pickup that's doing 80+ that you can see visibly flexing in the middle because it's so rotten that the only thing holding the chassis together is the bodywork.  Or realising that I'm looking at the pavement over there through fresh air where both the body, frame and interior of that car next to me should be...Suddenly the MOT seems a very sensible idea indeed!

I think it's particularly bad around the East Lansing area where we usually are as there's a big student presence there for the university so there's a lot of really end of life tat around.

Granted with how things have changed over there in the last year I am kind of glad we chose this side of the pond - though that may end up changing through necessity in the future, who knows.  

The fact that I am a terrible hoarder and have far far too much stuff also makes the idea of a move that big kind of terrifying!  I'm already pondering getting my 7.5t licence sorted out just to make the logistics so much easier next time we move within the UK.

... Definitely no ulterior motives involving huge US made RVs there.  Nope, not at all...

[danthecapriman]

20 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

Funny seeing this sort of thing mentioned twice in a few days in two different posts, but it seems relevant mentioning our findings here too.  We seriously looked at this ~15 years ago.  Half of the family here is from the US, so it was pretty much a roll.of the dice as to which side of the pond we'd aim for.  As it is most of the relations/friends over here have passed on or buggered off abroad, so there's even less tying us here whereas we have plenty of family and a load of friends around the Lansing/Detroit area.

The killer for us though was the cost of healthcare.  Just the basic recurring medications(nothing particularly unusual - my husband's epilepsy is about the most left field) for the four of us would be well north of $1500 a month - that's on top of a three figure sum every month for health insurance.  Paying near enough what we currently do on our mortgage for the known, recurring healthcare costs just wasn't going to fly.  My very ordinary asthma inhalers were several hundred dollars apiece.  Those are 15 year old numbers as well so it's probably worse now.  The realisation that you could do something as routine as badly sprain an ankle to the point of needing it checked out could land you with a five figure bill was and still is frankly terrifying.  You start looking at the numbers and suddenly you realise why you hear stories of badly wounded car accident victims absolutely begging ambulance crews not to take them to the hospital.  One of my friends over there is a first responder and can confirm that absolutely happens - usually at least a few times a day.

There are a lot of upsides though and it does feel a much more pleasant and friendly place to be than here.  Though the summer would kill me - not that it's much different here now we routinely have 25C plus for weeks on end anyway.

Car wise, some of the things you see in daily use in and around Lansing though are legitimately terrifying.  Nothing wakes you up like being overtaken on the Interstate by a pickup that's doing 80+ that you can see visibly flexing in the middle because it's so rotten that the only thing holding the chassis together is the bodywork.  Or realising that I'm looking at the pavement over there through fresh air where both the body, frame and interior of that car next to me should be...Suddenly the MOT seems a very sensible idea indeed!

I think it's particularly bad around the East Lansing area where we usually are as there's a big student presence there for the university so there's a lot of really end of life tat around.

Granted with how things have changed over there in the last year I am kind of glad we chose this side of the pond - though that may end up changing through necessity in the future, who knows.  

The fact that I am a terrible hoarder and have far far too much stuff also makes the idea of a move that big kind of terrifying!  I'm already pondering getting my 7.5t licence sorted out just to make the logistics so much easier next time we move within the UK.

... Definitely no ulterior motives involving huge US made RVs there.  Nope, not at all...

I must admit, the healthcare thing is a concern about the US. I’ve heard the same about accident victims refusing treatment or hospital visits. But, having had bad experiences of the NHS over my lifetime, it’s not all it’s made out here. Yes, you get it ‘free’ if you like (it’s not free at all really though) but it’s in such a shit state now you either can’t get an appointment or by the time you do your either dead or recover on your own. It’s also the risk of going to hospital and coming out worse than you go in because it’s filthy and nobody cares. Dental care??? No chance! You get charged for it through you taxes but you can’t get it unless go private.  
Saying that, that’s just my experience. There’s loads of people who haven’t had the same.

For me, I just hate 6 months of every year in the UK. It’s cold, wet and utterly miserable. You can go weeks or months without seeing sunlight! I’d love to live somewhere warm and sunny like California, Nevada etc. There’s obviously still crap weather there, but it goes. Here it just lingers indefinitely for ages. 
The country is too small too. You can’t really go anywhere without other people being around. Everywhere is crowded and noisy. At least in the US you can get away if you don’t like all that. I can’t remember what the figure is now, but apparently you’re never more than a few miles away from a road or whatever in the UK, it’s so crowded and built up. In the US there’s still huge areas of nothing. That’s the appeal to me. 
I hate most of the people in this country too. Brits are such dull boring sods nowadays!

Here though it just seems like your stuck somewhere that doesn’t like you ‘living’ life your way. It’s society’s way or nothing. There’s always reasons you can’t do something or you must do this or that and pay this or pay that. Everything costs a fortune here too. Ive got absolutely no chance of my own house here and thats after having a decent job. You’re just chasing a goal that only gets further away. I’ve given up now, I don’t work anymore as there’s no point trying, I just live cheap on my savings. What happens when they run out I don’t know! 
There is obviously difficulties anywhere you go but I honestly just feel so detached from life in the UK these days. It’s like I just don’t fit in here at all. I think if you were living somewhere you got some of the benefits and good things you want out of life then you can also put the effort and work into that place to help that place, if you follow. As it is here I’m just busting my ass for nothing. Why??

Sorry for the thread derailing @Fumbler

[N Dentressangle]

On 14/12/2025 at 15:50, Fumbler said:

With emigrating also came better higher quality of life

Well, I was going to ask how bad things were in the UK that spannering on horrible tat in minus fuckknowswhat is better, but it sounds like there are others who don't like the UK either.

Bye then 😉 Or maybe try a different bit of the UK?

I watch a fair bit of US YT channels and would not have been tempted, even before the orange nazi took over. Italy, S France, Spain etc, yes - deffo nowhere with weather worse than here. I have lived in other European countries, and everywhere has pros and cons IMO. Dark, rainy winters are the worst thing about the UK for me - lots of the people seem a bit thick and racist, but that seems to be the same everywhere now, sadly.

The YT guys give the impression that interesting, basically sound old cars are there for the taking anywhere you go, but it sounds like that's not the case?

 

[Fumbler]

3 hours ago, N Dentressangle said:

Well, I was going to ask how bad things were in the UK that spannering on horrible tat in minus fuckknowswhat is better, but it sounds like there are others who don't like the UK either.

Bye then 😉 Or maybe try a different bit of the UK?

It's simple, really. My husband lives in America, not the UK. That's why I moved.

I lived in East Sussex and moved to Lincolnshire before emigrating.

As for the quality of life part, the car bit is very shit at the moment, but it's been like that back in Blighty as well. Everything else is very good. I can even afford a house and I'm in a job which I love.

On the interesting cars front, it's slightly weird. There are loads of them about and once upon a time, you could get them very cheaply. However, as a result of YouTube a couple models are now unaffordable for Joe Public. It's not all doom and gloom though, I found a '68 Olds Eighty Eight, not rusty, running and driving for $3500. That's still fairly good value for a land yacht with some actual power.

[N Dentressangle]

The Olds sounds good. We definitely need reports!

Sorry, I didn't mean to question why you moved - you explained that already, completely understand.

[danthecapriman]

Probably aimed at me and my complaining I expect!😆

I wouldn’t know how to begin with regards to moving abroad. Sadly, it’s never easy for us to get out of the country as it seems for everyone else to get in. All sorts of hoops to jump through and prove your a worthwhile addition to someone’s country.

Obviously I can’t get in anywhere by marriage either, so that’s out. It’s hard enough trying to trick a British lady to take me on let alone a foreign one😆

In all honesty, the political situation in the US isn’t great. But things change and Trump won’t be there forever if you don’t like him. Likewise the bunch of scum bags we have and had before will change. In that respect you’ve got to just keep as away from it as possible I think. Dwelling on that won’t do any good. 
The weather here is my biggest problem. I get SAD like you wouldn’t believe and on meds for depression too so that’s doesn’t go down well when the weather is like it has been recently. Unfortunately it’s like that most of the time for 50% of the year. There’s nothing you can really do about it though. It just feels like your only able to ‘live’ for half of every year. 
The summer here is usually nice, I’ll concede. Once the spring arrives (I’m counting the days down already!) and the clocks go forward it’s not a bad usually.

Employment here is terrible though. I’m honestly a complete loss about what to do now. Maybe it is a good time to be seriously start looking at emigrating? Canada, Oz, NZ… are all good options for me.

 

[Fumbler]

Happy new year everyone.

I can't really remember what happened last post, but I believe things were looking on the up with some free parts to finally end my wailing and gnashing of teeth.

While I'd like to say everything went smoothly and the problems all went away and we all lived happily ever after, they sort of didn't. Shocking, I know. Firstly, scheduling changes meant my work was delayed, so I didn't pick up my free alternator and A/C compressor until early January, when my friends came up to visit. I drove them around my corner of the state for a few days and by the end of it, the compressor pully had enough of life and (what was left of) the bearing exploded. When I got around to looking at the 'new' parts, the alternator was fine but the compressor was full of water, seized up and the pulley would rumble when spun. Some questions later and I learned the compressor had been open to the elements for around a year. This was slightly* aggravating, but y'know, free parts etc. etc. Around this time I also noticed I had to keep topping the coolant off and I couldn't see any obvious leak, which just added to the general mood.

Fortunately, some more jobs had come my way so I spent two weeks down in Kentucky doing those. Unfortunately, as soon as we got down there, forecasters had started predicting the great winter snowmageddon for the end of that week and the entirety of the South basically shut down for half of my stay. Happily though, I was able to order a brand new compressor and it was dispatched from a warehouse in the north of the country, so it avoided all the weather delays everywhere south of central Indiana. I might have to write about my southern snow experiences at some point because it was a really hilarious and equally infuriating shit show.

So I get home and remove the accessory belt (and for the first time ever it was easy and took 10 seconds) and the old alternator. Really boring stuff, didn't photograph, however, look at what it exposed-

Hello, coolant. I wonder where you came from?

I put this to the back of my mind since I still needed to remove the compressor. It went well-ish

After totally not venting the refrigerant into the atmosphere, I was able to undo one hose just fine but the other was basically corroded to the stud. This must be a common issue because the new one uses bolts instead. Anyway, after unbolting the compressor and using a hammer, everything finally separated. Also note all the metal dust on the right side of the picture. All of that used to be a bearing.

After extracting the compressor I could finally look at the damage. It's crazy. Hopefully these pictures show how bad it got:

There was just no bearing surface left. It was all gone. After the bearing detonated, the pulley got so hot it shrunk the labels and melted the plugs. Had the clutch not been there the pulley would have fallen off.

 

Now I could turn my attention to this coolant puddle. I figured that the only place it could have leaked from was the thermostat neck, so after draining* the coolant (*spilling most of it on the floor) I took the neck off and removed the 'stat. This is what I found:

 

BOO-YAH! I'm pretty sure this is my smoking gun. After putting a new 'stat and gasket in, I bolted all the cooling stuff back together, refilled the radiator and got on with reassembly.

New O-rings were put on the AC hoses of course. Rather surprisingly, putting everything back together wasn't all that difficult and I had it all back together again within an hour, so I was pleased. I originally didn't notice the belt wasn't fully over the water pump, however it aligned itself just fine after cranking the engine over. Boy, it's so nice having a quiet engine bay. It makes driving much more pleasant. 

So, now what? What's left to fix? Well at the moment, not much else, really. Assuming the coolant leak has been rectified, there are oil leaks to fix, the screwed up back suspension (I am fairly confident it's shock absorbers) and the steering wheel clock spring to replace. On Friday it's going to Toyota to get the rocker cover gasket replaced (since it's leaking on every side), get an oil change and have the air con recharged. We'll see how long the engine stays full this time. Aside from vacuuming the interior out after salt season is over, I don't think there's much else to take care of.

 

 

[danthecapriman]

Nice job👍 

Hopefully once you get the oil change and gasket done it’ll all be sorted and you can just use the thing.

[Fumbler]

OK, so Toyota did some work on the vehicle, here are some pictures of the report I received:

In summary, they charged the air conditioning, performed an oil change and changed the rocker cover gasket, all for $148. In the words of Hubert H. Humphrey, "I'M PLEASED AS PUNCH!" For the first time since buying it, the car is very civil to drive with every accessory functioning like it should. 

This isn't the end, however. As noted on the invoice the cause of the Sloppy Rear End™ is down to blown out rear struts, so that clears that up. My service advisor told me aftermarket is basically the only option because ordering OEM parts on their end is complicated and very expensive, plus they aren't much better than aftermarket parts. That's fine, I can replace them in the summer.

Additionally the sump gasket leaks, but not nearly as badly as the rocker cover. Since all I wanted was the leaks slowed down, I'm happy for the time being. I've been told I'll need to jack up the engine so I can drop the sump and change the gasket. I'll monitor my oil loss and see if it's worth doing. The engine definitely burns a little oil, but I don't mind.

For some strange reason, they are very keen to change the transmission fluid and replace the pan gasket. I'm not so sure because I know of several instances where high mileage transmissions had fluid changes and they then turn into a box of neutrals. The theory is so much clutch material gets into the oil that, when it gets replaced, the transmission slips into oblivion. The spark plugs are also due for a change and I already knew about it, but I've just been too lazy to deal with it.

Lastly, I need to get a clock spring for the steering wheel. The horn doesn't work and neither do the air bags. Fortunately, one of my friends recently bought a scrap Camry from the same year and I've been given carte blanche to rob it of any parts I need, so hopefully something can be done there.

And there we go, that's it for the time being. I have a busy schedule for the rest of the month and after that, I have no clue what I'll be doing, car wise at least.

[danthecapriman]

Could the sump gasket actually be more down to the valve cover gasket leaking? Usually if the valve covers leak the oil runs down the engine and drips off the lowest bit - usually the sump! It makes it look like it’s leaking but it’s not. 
You could get a bit of engine degreaser and clean up the engine as best you can then monitor it around the sump to see if it’s actually leaking or not.

[Fumbler]

3 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Could the sump gasket actually be more down to the valve cover gasket leaking? Usually if the valve covers leak the oil runs down the engine and drips off the lowest bit - usually the sump! It makes it look like it’s leaking but it’s not. 
You could get a bit of engine degreaser and clean up the engine as best you can then monitor it around the sump to see if it’s actually leaking or not.

Potentially, since I had them replace the valve cover gasket I'm sort of expecting they cleaned stuff up afterwards and saw the sump gasket leaking, however at the same time, they probably didn't. I was just told it's something to monitor.