With my continued gas savings I bought this! (1999 Accord LX)

[Xist]

I sprayed the grease on the side and rear of the the valve cover with brake cleaner, scrubbed with Mom's toothbrush, sprayed with that carwash, scrubbed with Mom's toothbrush, reinstalled the back seat, reinstalled the battery bracket, tightened the exhaust bolts, and noticed Lucas Transmission Fix on my exhaust, so it was blown back on the highway?

I vacuumed the trunk and the cabin. I didn't seem to get anything from the latter, but the former needed it.

I wiped every hard surface in the cabin.

Hmm... how did ChrisFix clean the instrument cluster?

I don't know what the Alaskan left in my cupholders, but steam-cleaning was the solution. Then I steam-cleaned the rest of that grease and the bottom of the transmission.

Where would one find more power?!

My Friday morning mom said that we needed to do speech Thursday or Friday evening. I replied "Of course, when is best for you?"
She didn't respond.
I followed up and she messaged me last night that we needed to do speech at 08.
Cool cool.
Why would I want sleep?!
I worked with the first kid, who is wonderful, but has ADHD, and was excited, so it was like when the nun attempted to interrogate the Fowl twin in "The Fowl Twins" and realized that she was answering all of the questions.
Finally the mom said that client needed to go, but the sibling had been throwing a tantrum and I never had a chance to talk to him!

The mom said she would call me back in half an hour--or whenever the kid calmed down.

I guess that he never did.

I never heard from my old dentist's office.

After I left I realized that I left a couple of things my girlfriend left behind.

When I was most of the way here I realized that I left my crowns.

I need those!

I feel exhausted. Goodnight!
I drove to the valley without a problem.

[Christian]

Originally Posted by Xist

Anyway, I am going to finish up Operation Pig Lipstick and start fixing up the 2002 Civic.

Looking forward to it! I'm sure you'll blow my MPG out of the water once you've got it all sorted out

[Xist]

Oh no, once I get the 2002 Civic working I am going to sell it, too, before something breaks!

Then I will finally get around to replacing the missing screws for my 2000 Civic's heater assembly, Heli-coiling bolt holes in the firewall, replacing the heater core (again), reinstalling my dash, and whatever else that car needs!

I had 50 MPG tanks, but a long, long time ago.

Since I had three old, large, and white vehicles hit my Camry within several months I am reluctant to drive something as small as a Civic again.

They didn't see the Camry?!

Fifty MPG tanks, though...

The other thing is that I may be sentimental about the lean burn. That car gets awesome fuel economy and I cannot imagine finding someone who cars about that!

Maybe someone here, but how many thousands of miles would I need to drive (and fly back) to sell my car for the blue book value?

So, I wrote all of this yesterday, but I am visiting my girlfriend, and trying to take care of a million things.

I slept in for the first time in days, called my old dentist, and left another voice mail. The VA notified me that someone responded to my e-mail, but the response wouldn't load, so I spent 20 minutes on the phone.

I finally loaded the e-mail.

It said that someone would get a hold of me.

The soonest available appointment was April tenth.

Surely this time they won't cancel at the last minute!

I tried looking into my airbag recall and saw something about a $50-150 gift card, but that may have ended in August, and Honda's site said that my Accord had recalls for the ignition interlock and the ignition safety switch, so they may not be eligible?

When I tried to schedule an appointment another site said there weren't any recalls for my car, so I called the nearest dealership, and set an appointment for 11:30.

Dealers are real pirates, but that phone call lasted 30 seconds.

I didn't think that I would be able to get to my old dentist's new location before they closed for lunch so I called 8 transmission shops down here. Six estimated around $2,700 with one saying that Honda transmissions have a bad habit of wearing down the inside of the transmission case, so they need to send it out to be repaired physically.

AAMCO said four or five thousand dollars.

One guy said “We don’t do ‘em.”

What is the correct response to that?

My old dentist was supposed to be coming back from lunch, so I pulled up the address from their e-mail with the subject of "Our new location!" and when I was almost there I realized it was their old place.

I found their new address, but Google Maps refused to give me directions. I found it and had a weird experience, but scheduled an appointment for tomorrow at noon.

I had figured I needed to buy another book and would read while I waited, but much better! I will go to the dentist!

Then my sister was upset that I was apparently cheating on her best friend's brother with a lady I used to see.

I needed to explain repeatedly that I went to a dentist in Show Low, but he didn't have the right screwdriver, so I am trying to get my old dentist to tighten the implant she installed for me.

I never mentioned the crowns in a bag in a box in my car.

However, as I mentioned, if she can recement them then I will ask the brother for a cleaning.

As one of the Donut Boys said, "It's not the labor itself that takes a lot of work, but rather the life that happens in between."

[freebeard]

"It's not the labor itself that takes a lot of work, but rather the life that happens in between."

"Life is what happens while you are making other plans."

[Xist]

I replaced the valve cover gasket years ago with a Fel-Pro one because I didn't want to wait a week for a Honda gasket.

Honda says to put Hondabond in the corners, but Fel-Pro has extra material there so you don't need it.

They didn't for my Camry, so I used Hondabond.

It annoyed me that they didn't order the parts for the recall repair when I made the appointment or at least let me know they needed to order parts when I dropped off the car.

Since they were looking at my car I asked them to adjust one of my belts, there was a chirping noise on startup, and they could fix it faster than I could.

The mechanic said there is residue on my belts from not having a fender liner, so I should just replace the belt.

What?

What?!

Also, after spending a year or two trying to track down my leaks and having three mechanics get under my car I asked the dealership, the experts on my car, to find them.

That was when he went on about the lack of Hondabond.

You can see in the video they linked me that there isn't any oil under the valve cover gasket!

I will shove some Hondabond in there to make them shut up!

He showed oil all over the undercarriage, said "It's drastically a lot."

Drastically a lot.

Well, he is not supposed to be a language expert!

He said the oil is coming from the undercarriage and said he couldn't pinpoint the leak, but the valve cover doesn't have Hondabond.

The only thing he did right was the exhaust has been loud since I replaced the oil pan gasket. I tightened the fasteners on the catalytic converter, but I didn't drop that!

I dropped the front pipe!

I mentioned that, said I heard the exhaust on acceleration, and asked him to tighten the front nuts, which he did.

A hundred and fifty dollars to tighten 3 fasteners!

He then said that I had the wrong fasteners on the catalytic converter, so he recommended replacing those.

I found 15 dealerships selling them and the cheapest total for 6 nuts and 6 bolts was $98.

I paid 50¢ at Cal Ranch!

Will they last another 23 years?!

No!

However, if the car outlasts the fasteners, and my sister buys new ones, I will replace them for her!

So, I no longer have the car. My sister agreed to pay me $250. We just haven't signed it over yet.

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!

[Xist]

I paid to talk to two mechanics on JustAnswer, but the subscription is cheaper and easier than taking my car to a mechanic a few times a year. Both said the transmission needs to be pulled to verify the rear main seal is leaking.

One asked if oil is pooling on top of the engine, so I am going to tell my sister (again) that I think the car needs thousands of dollars of work, but check that spot before making a final decision, although it still has a bad ATF leak.

[Xist]

My sister messaged me that my brother-in-law was driving the car home and asked me for the VIN so they could insure it.

She asked the guy nowhere near the car for the VIN of the car her husband was driving.

I looked it up, sent to her, and she sent me proof of insurance.

She could have just said she has it.

I trust my sister!

When I removed Crisis from my coverage USAA said I would save $239.27 every 6 months.

That is 95.7% of what I paid for the car!

[freebeard]

My Superbeetle is in storage. If I took it off the policy I'd save $20 every six months.

[redpoint5]

I don't know what's going on. You're lending a leaky car to your sister to drive? I thought you said she buys new cars?

What's the condensed status update on all the vehicles you've got?

[Xist]

Negative, Space Ranger, Crisis is supposed to be her responsibility from now on.

Any day now...

She said they would figure out everything, but then she asked about paying $670 to replace the valve cover gasket and add Hondabond, so I am still trying to figure out everything, but she will pay for materials?

She bought her Odyssey used, but her previous three vehicles new.

However, this vehicle was originally our sister-in-law's, then mine, and she knows that I try to take care of things.

My nephew is supposed to drive this and maybe if he is good someday he will have a nicer car than me.

Their grandmother gave his step-sister her old Solara, but then my brother-in-law's ex-wife convinced her to trade it in for a piece of Chevy.

Chorizo: I haven't worked on her in years. The dash is still in the garage. The KBB value is: $2,298
2002 Civic: I keep wanting to clear out the garage, but in theory I could replace the head gasket in the driveway first, although my sister, her best friend, and my girlfriend are driving up this weekend, so the driveway will be unavailable.
If I could clear out the garage before they got here...
I was going to move Mom's old oven out and attempt to clean it quickly, but I crashed, so I guess the side yard is my destiny.
KBB value: $2,033
Again, I have always seen Japanese cars sell for above blue book, but by a significant margin? I looked at the completed eBay Motors sales and two dealers sold Civics with 215,000 and 260,759 miles for over $4k.
The rest seemed to be donated cars that don't necessarily run, so I don't know!
Camry: Runs great!
KBB value: $6,105

So, counting the $250 from Crisis, although I spent $150 for the dealer to obsess over Hondabond, $2,298 for Chorizo, $2,033 for the 2002, and $6,105 for the Camry that cost me $4,200, in theory I could put together $10,686 for my various vehicles, which would get me this 2009 Camry with 94,000 miles that sold for $10k:

Then what?
Well, either someone would drive a big, old, and white vehicle into it, and I would be looking for yet another vehicle, or the very first time the car needs a minor repair lunatics would insist I need to get rid of it and buy another!