Automotive

In cleaning up and doing some maintenance on this new to me Jeep Wrangler It was apparent that the serpentine belt and tensioner needed to be replaced. The pulley on the tensioner had a little play and the serpentine belt was original with ~118k miles. The Gates tensioner appears to be identical to the Mopar (both stamped with “MADE IN…

This is a rather simple and straight forward job. It seems that most Jeep guys like the FEL-PRO gaskets for the 3.8. The 3.8 is a common motor and the gaskets seem to be available everywhere (cheap too). The FEL-PRO valve cover gasket set includes gromets for the valve cover bolts. I noticed that the PCV valve was stuck in…

Our 2015 Forester started to feel unstable on the freeway so I decided to inspect the front suspension. The rear bushing on the lower control arms appeared to be partially torn and had a lot of cracks. Which makes sense as it was also making a small clunk noise at slow speeds when hitting bumps. Upon removal, it was in…

I purchased a 2009 Jeep Wrangler in 2021 with around 118,000 miles. The initial plan was to install a lift, gears, locker, different wheels, and 33” tires. Upon further inspection it needed some catchup in the maintenance department before any modifications could be made. This will be the main build post; I’ll update this as the project evolves. Maintenance Valve…

There are a couple of things worth noting when doing pads and rotors on a 2 - 2.5 gen Tundra (and probably 2nd gen Sequoya too). I did a ton of research trying to find out who the OEM supplier is for this application. After pouring through many photos of factory replacement pads, I concluded that Advics is the OE…