Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Learning the Trade Update: Bar's Stop Oil Leak and Upholstery

As promised, I'm going to run you through what happened with the product I tested, the upholstery, and a snippet of something special gifted to me by a dear reader!

These Chinese back-up lights harness the power of the sun.

Keep it fire and ice? Probably not but it's a nice contrast.

There's a few car communities out there that seem to create a big community of people with similar cars who usually tend to help each other out while barely knowing each other. It's because of the passion we have, I suppose. There's Jeep people (don't call an SUV a Jeep!), Honda people, BMW people... Car enthusiasts of specific brands tend to get together. The Lexus LS400 community, I am learning, is very nice. A reader contacted me on Instagram and offered to buy me an LS400 LED light kit! It took a month to get here from China but I love it. It replaces all of the bulbs on the interior (I think... I have most of them in) and even comes with backup lights. In blue. I absolutely love it - thanks again @heresjohnnyls400!

Anyway, let's get to the update of what Bar's Oil Stop Leak did. Well, it was very little and yes, I used two bottles spaced 200 miles and 4 quarts of leaked oil apart. Notice I didn't say it had no effect. It seems to have slowed the leak down a little - the car now leaks a quart every 3 instead of 2 days - so that's good but it's a miniscule change and I just need to get my valve cover gasket changed out, that's all. I knew this but I figured I would save you guys the trouble of spending $7.00 on two bottles of Bar's Stop Oil Leak (I bet I've changed that name up three times by now). Well, I was hoping... You know how it is...

Don't fret! 

Yes, this is why articles have been slow and I apologise, but I am going through a big change in life and hopefully at the end of this change, I will have my oil leak fixed as well as my timing belt and water pump before that blows. Those should have 5k miles AT LEAST so I think I'm okay for now. I'm literally comparing the state of my belt to the one on my old car which was ready to go and this one has some time. Strong belts... Seriously...

The one other issue that has been bugging me just a little (not a lot because I drive the car like a grandpa to save the belt) is that the car will sometimes shake once every 10-15 seconds as it misfires when I'm in drive idling at a red light or something. Also, sometimes the cylinder(s) won't fire for a second if  accelerating faster-than-normal in the 40-60 mph range. 

I think this is one of two things. The code is a "Random Misfire," p0300. This means that sometimes, a random cylinder won't fire. When I first got the car, it was hard to drive until I changed out the spark plugs and wires. That helped a lot and brought me to where I am now.

So what do I think it could be? I am guessing it's the fuel pump. When accelerating, like I mentioned, it's like it doesn't get enough fuel (just what I think - I don't know for sure). The fact that it's random points to this as well. And also, the fact that it does this at red lights may be due to it not quite producing enough pressure to send enough fuel at minimum idling pressure (meaning, at that setting it shows it has gotten too weak; when the gas is flowing, it's easier to pump). This seems to especially line up also with the fact that if I put the AC on and the RPMs go up by a few hundred, the car starts shaking more.

Also, quite embarrassing actually - one of the spark plug wires is a different brand because the one that came with the car was ripped. Remember though, it's a random misfire.


Enough with the boring stuff. What is this above, you say? Potato bags? No sir, it is the rolled up skin that is going over my front seats.

I've taken real care working on these and I think the quality is pretty good. The interior is far from done but I can show you how the seats will look.

You won't see this car again until the interior is completely re-done. If you've read some of my other articles, I'm redoing it completely. The fact that those LEDs came is perfect, too. I may do an article where I go through the major points from the beginning. From Lexy, the '95, to Lexy 2 in all her glory carrying the spirit of the original car. 

Please don't ask if I made the black car seat cover - we're looking at the driver's seat.

Happy working on gears, people!

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