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Originally Posted by Christian
Hey guys, it's been a few weeks, so figured it was time for update #4.
The weather is improving here, and I've finally had the chance to go over the car and do some maintenance items and improvements that I had been procrastinating.
As far as fuel economy goes, even though I am still using my steel rims on winter tires, my average lifetime gas mileage has jumped from 23.9mpg (9.8l/100km) to 26.96mpg (8.7L/100km). This is great news for me as nothing has changed other than the weather. I really look forward to installing those new wheels and tires for (hopefully) an even bigger improvement.
The first things on my to-do list were to replace my cabin air filter and install some platinum plugs from NGK. I didn't get any service history on either item when I purchased the car, so I figured it was time to swap them out. The cabin air filter was pretty dirty, but the spark plugs appeared to be in okay shape. One thing that stood out to me, was the discolouration on the plugs. 3 of my plugs had a greenish hue, but one was very purple. Could this mean that one of my cylinders is getting too hot? I would appreciate any input.
Next on the list, I had a transmission fluid flush performed and found out that my steering rack was leaking. Although this is bad news, it appears to be a slow leak, so hopefully, I can get away with just topping up the power steering for now.
That just about wraps up my update, there are a few minor side notes though. I finally "fixed" my OBDII gauge so that it isn't losing power anymore, so I can now use my Scangauge! I'm hoping the "fix" will hold up over time. I also removed the OEM rubber lip/dam that goes under the front bumper of the car, as it was half torn off from an incident with a tall curb in a parking lot...
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Nice, glad to hear you are making progress!
Are you sure the power steering rack itself is leaking? I never saw one of these racks leak, but the steel return pipe coming from the rack rusted out on both my 7th gens, so I'd try to pinpoint exactly where it's leaking from before condemning the entire rack. But if the rack ends up having to be replaced anyways, that would be a great time to upgrade to EPS.
From what I can see on the pictures, those spark plugs look fine to me. I have no explanation for the purple look one of the spark plugs has, maybe it came from a different batch or something. If there was a problem with something like a clogged fuel injector causing an excessively lean air/fuel ratio, I'd expect to see that on the ground strap and electrode area rather than on the outside.