“I ended up getting the uppers for the same truck for $20.00 each!”

Don’t get too excited, there’s a reason generic suspension parts online are so cheap. Anything beyond swaybar links and bushings I have a hard time trusting my life (potentially) to Chinesium. 

“even moog I question these days”

I hear ya. When I preventatively replaced the lower balljoints on my 3rd gen 4runner, OEM Toyota units were the only way to go (easy bolt-on design). I have a loose one on my ‘03 Pilot now (pressed in, Mac-strut front end), I elected to go with a replacement Moog control arm with new…

Just for you Dave:

Dogs love 4Runner opening rear windows!

Nice baby blue Moskvitch 412 shot! Have ridden up many a mountain pass in the back of one (Altai mountains in Siberia), some overheating may have been involved.

David as an avid offroader you might apperciate this. It’s in Russian, but the picures get the point across. These ZAZes much like VW bugs are surprisingly capable off the beaten path. Favorable weight distribution, good clearance, the rear mounted engine makes water crossings more manageable.

FWIW I learned to drive stick on a ‘71 ZAZ 966 with leaking clutch hydraulics (had to pump it a bit sometimes), and a reversed shift pattern on a very crude tractor-like gear shift (by the 968M as seen in the image the shift pattern was more conventional apparently) . Reverse was pressing the whole shifter down and…

My parents’ ‘07 Fit is terrible in this regard. Like an “on/off” switch is what it feels like. Never driven anything else like it. The shifter itself is pretty decent I guess, although it has no weight to it and feels a bit toy-like. By comparison the ‘12 Civic I had had a much easier clutch and a nicer, heavier and…

Honestly I thought my ‘97s clutch was super easy to work, with a really long travel and forgiving engagement. Hoping out of it and into my brother’s 5spd Mystique or parents’ ‘07 Fit was a challenge, both of those cars had what felt like super short travels for the clutch. The Fit in particular feels like an on/off…

Agree with Tracy on this one. I did just that (not to learn stick but to do a bunch of yard projects). Scooped up a single owner ‘97 Ranger XLT 4cyl 5spd for $1700 on CL. Ended up commuting in it and doing all my hauling. Really teaches you clutch/throttle control in the rain, it will sit there spinning a wheel at the…

I’m actually getting mine welded up right now, and yes just the driver’s side, passenger side is just fine. Local welder I found on CL quoted me $500. Which is quite reasonable given that the subframe needs to be dropped and the fabrication involved. Plus about $80 for a new OEM subframe bushing and hardware. I’ve…

I briefly owned a ‘96 Lexus ES300 with the 1MZ 3.0L V6 that was a travesty in terms of design as well. The filter was positioned on the front of the block behind the exhaust header, and right above the front motor mount. The motor mount bracket formed a pretty large open void between it and the engine block. When you…

Just did an oil change on my ‘96 4Runner with the same 3.4L engine What’s nice is not having to lift the truck to do an oil change. But yeah reaching through that wheel well to get at the filter (better hope it’s not cooked on there too tight), and then dumping its contents all over the skid plates and have them drip…

As a former ‘90 Cappuccino Metallic Civic Wagon owner, it makes me sad to mark this as CP, but with 200k miles and an auto, it simply is. A 6spd RT4WD wagon with half the mileage, now that would be worth $5k IMO.

I really miss my EF wagon. It honestly was in just about every imaginable way a better car than the ‘07 Fit…

Nothing too exciting or sexy, bringing my recently bought Pilot up to snuff with new rear brakes, shocks/struts/swaybar links all around

“driving bridge can be either front, with a viscous coupling connected, or a transfer box, rear, as well as vice versa. A permanent full drive of both bridges can also be realized.”
“licked”

This to me sounds like they did a rough google translate from Russian.

Using the term “bridges” for axles sounds weird, but the…

You complain about the Outlander Sport displacing things like the Lancer, and yet you own one such Lancer with the horrible CVT that epitomized the shittiness of that generation of Lancer (in non-Evo guise). Mitsubishi doesn’t have a competitive sedan, and hasn’t for over a decade. What they do have is crossovers,…

My thought as well. How does the Accord stack up to the Alero condition-wise? I ask this as a Honda fan. How much rust on either car?

“At the expense of safety” Not really, not in a meaningful way on a plebian family car IMO.

“ drums are more difficult to work on are they not” Yes, but chances are you will never have to work on them in the lifetime of the vehicle (or say the first 15 years or so). Rear disk brakes will typically get rust on the…

“old Taurus SHO”
“Reliable as hell”

Nope