Comments by "mplslawnguy" (@mplslawnguy3389) on "The Car Care Nut" channel.

  1. You consistently put out some of the best auto repair content on YouTube. I am not a mechanic, but do love to fix my vehicles when I can, and I've always loved cars and engines and everything that goes into them. Great content, no BS, no filler, no unnecessary music, love it. Keep up the good work.
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  2. I don't even own a Toyota and I love this channel. I wish I had a mechanic like him. I'm sure one exists, but they're like finding a needle in a haystack. Unfortunately the first couple mechanics on that Avalon is the norm everywhere, and people that have no mechanical aptitude or even basic car knowledge get taken to the cleaners every day.
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  3. I was an AT in the Navy. We did FOD walks on the flight deck daily. The importance of working cleanly was hammered into us as soon as you report to your first duty station. A single washer, nut or screw could be catastrophic.
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  4. @MANsculinity The circuit is more like $45K, and no, it's not worth that. This is a $30K car, and nothing will change my mind. A regular Corolla Hatch should be around $20K, and with these upgrades, this thing should realistically be $30K. I refuse to buy any of this crap, not just this one, but all of them. They need to start pricing cars realistically.
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  5. More people need to walk away, it's the only way this changes. As long as people keep paying these ridiculous markups, they will keep doing it.
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  6.  @craigiefconcert6493  The one caveat of classic cars is they had zero, and I mean zero, rust protection. I live in the rust belt and as a kid I vividly remember all the 60's and 70's cars (not classics then, just older cars) completely disintegrating. Cars still rust, but not nearly as bad as those ones. I had a '78 F-100 with a straight six that would have run forever had I lived anywhere but here.
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  7. It's actually alarming at how many shops either don't know how to change it, or just refuse to change it. I have a ZF 8-speed, which is a bit more complicated than a Toyota change, you have to get it in the right temp range, and cycle through gears, topping off a few times until you get the correct level. It's kind of a complicated process, but doable for a DIYer. The fact that independent shops have no experience with these transmissions, tells me that people are taking this "sealed, lifetime tranny fluid" to heart, and basically not changing their fluid. I think it's pretty sad that we are moving further and further towards being entirely dependent on dealerships for all our maintenance and DIYers are becoming rarer and rarer because of greed and planned obsolescence. Simple maintenance shouldn't be this complicated for people.
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  8. I rarely clean my engine compartment, but when I do I use Dawn as well. Just a bucket of warm, soapy water and a shop towel. I don't spray anything in the engine compartment, just get the rag wet and wipe it down. It doesn't have to be perfect, but you can get it looking pretty good just wiping things down. People go so overboard on stuff that doesn't matter.
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  9. If you watch a lot of his videos, you'd know that he always stresses going OEM whenever possible.
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  10. Finding an honest shop is getting rarer and rarer. That is great advice on a 15 year old car. That's where uninformed people get taken to the cleaners, paying for repairs on an old car that are just not necessary, nor worth it. Once your vehicle is that old, do just enough to keep it on the road safely, other than that, it's an old car, it's going to have small leaks, noises and other annoying issues, but make sure you know what is necessary and what is not before giving the go ahead, or learn to fix stuff yourself.
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  11. Amazon is a wasteland of counterfeit crap. I've been burned too many times on there.
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  12. My family had a Tercel when I was growing up. Early 80's model year. Why my Dad got rid of it I'll never know, it had almost zero problems, which is saying something for cars of that era.
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  13.  @chunkybuttz844  Dealerships are independent, there's no difference between a Toyota dealership or a Ford dealership, they're all trying to make a buck, some are scummy about it, others aren't.
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  14. We have no control over what they make in China.
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  15. Finally, a video that applies to Ram owners. This is such a common problem on Rams with Hemis. I unfortunately just discovered the ticking noise (no, it's not a Hemi tick) on mine for the first time at 72,000 miles. Going to try and get the extended warranty to cover it. Crossing my fingers because I know how sleazy those extended warranties can be.
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  16. This is the truck that truck people want, but they will not give it to us.
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  17.  @kalani1987  Yeah, you can do it. Not familiar with the 6-speed process, but the 8-speed was a bit more complicated than I've ever seen, which will scare some people away from doing their own maintenance.
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  18. I recently put Akebono pads on my Ram and they're the best pads I've ever had. Definite upgrade.
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  19.  @danoconnell5592  You can get that in a modern V8.
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  20.  @kabuliazkabulistan  Report them to your AG and to Toyota Corporate.
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  21. As far as cars, there is nothing more fun than driving a sporty ICE car with a manual transmission. EV will never capture that.
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  22.  @splitt3r  I steer clear of Amazon for that reason.
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  23. ‘17 Ram owner, and it has been a very reliable truck for me. I too was worried about reliability issues but I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I can’t speak for the new ones though.
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  24. Hybrids are only worth it if you do a lot of city driving, people that drive Uber, or couriers and things like that. The non-hybrid still gets decent gas mileage, minus all the extra tech (that will eventually break).
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  25. I have an '04 Silverado and '17 Ram with V8's, it is the proper engine for a truck. I've had V6's in the past, and they don't compare to a good old V8. Even the new V6's don't, they're giving you that power, but at what cost? They have to work very hard to achieve those towing and hauling specs. Something is going to give eventually.
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  26. My favorite part about this channel is no unnecessary music and noise. It's just him talking and working on cars. I prefer this than anything you find on TV, where it's constant noise and people screaming and yelling, with over the top personalities.
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  27. Even CarCareNut can’t convince me that losing the V6 isn’t a big deal. Toyota screwed up here big time.
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  28. I hope one day, regular cars will make a comeback. Every new car review I watch makes me hate them more and more. I want a N/A, non-hybrid engine with a manual transmission. Why can't they at least give people like me that option? There are far more people like me than they realize.
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  29. IMO you need a V8 (at least, diesel if you tow regularly) in a full size pickup, for no other reason but to accommodate the weight of the vehicle. V6 in a Tacoma is perfect, not in a Tundra. You know why people say V8's are smooth? Because the engine isn't straining as much under load than a V6 or 4-cylinder. I'm sorry but the old cliche "no replacement for displacement" is true. I just don't see small engines holding up in the long run in these big trucks.
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  30. I'm blessed to live near an amazing independent shop that I have been using almost my entire life. It's completely family owned, with 3 generations working there. Really really great people, honest, and very skilled mechanics. That's very rare in the auto repair world. If you find a shop like this, consider yourself lucky. I'm just praying the younger generation of that family keeps the tradition going as the original owner is getting up there in age, and doesn't really work anymore, just stops in once in a while.
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  31. Any vehicle with 400,000 relatively trouble-free miles with the original engine and transmission still intact has been a good car. These repairs are to be expected. They're moving parts, and no moving part will last forever. However, at this stage in it's life, I wouldn't put too much money into it, like he said, there really is no way to tell how close the transmission is to failing, and the engine as well.
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  32. Wait 2 years and then buy one. Let someone else eat the depreciation.
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  33. A full size truck needs a V8 IMO. I don't care about the numbers they put down on paper. Drive a V6 turbo, and then drive a V8, and tell me the V6 is more powerful. That's utterly ridiculous. That engine is achieving more power because it's screaming for dear life running at higher RPMs. A V8 just hums along, handling things with ease.
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  34. Or have children, or own pets.
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  35. I will not buy a vehicle with an electric parking brake. Mechanical parking/emergency brakes work, and have always worked. The most glaring reason they're superior is they work no matter what, electronic brakes will not work if your electrical system decides to take a dump on you. There are videos out there confirming this on other models. They literally have to tell someone to come put something under their tires so their vehicle doesn't roll away.
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  36. Just get a little foldable step stool, problem solved.
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  37.  @damilolaakanni  I think a lot of people don't even know what sporty means. If you want a sporty car, go rent a real sports car, and see how you like it. He said it well, this isn't what this car is intended for, and they missed the mark.
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  38. Is it possible it's just a bad pin on the OCV connector? Probably not, your diagnosis was great and I'm sure correct, but that was my first thought before you said it was the ECM.
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  39.  @tedbell4416  What?
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  40.  @thekingofnoobs8362  It would be better to not have turbos in the fist place, that way you're guaranteed to never have to service them.
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  41. Definitely keep the tile if it's all good. Why spend money where you don't have to? Yeah you want your business looking how you want, but I've never walked out of an auto repair shop because I didn't like the color of their tile.
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  42. Just sell the engine and be done with it. This thing is toast. Toyota is not going to replace this frame, it's been too long since that recall. My 7 year old Ram barely has any rust and I live in the same region as CCN. Toyota messed up with this generation of trucks. If you're in the south, great, but these just fell apart up here.
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  43. I will never buy a car with this feature. If you don't care about warranties and what not, there are ways to disable these systems permanently, but I would just not buy one to begin with.
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  44. Environmental policies run amok. They can't build vehicles of this size anymore without these overly complex hybrid and turbo systems. They're trying to push EV trucks and SUV's, but people don't want them. The automotive industry is a complete mess.
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  45.  @Idtelos  When I was younger, you could buy brand new pickups for $15,000-$20,000. I know there is inflation, but $65,000 does not account for that. I don't buy pickups for luxury or gas mileage. I want a basic truck that does what a truck is supposed to do.
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  46.  @DavidNgo86  City driving is worse than highway driving. Lots of idling, stops and starts, and often the engine doesn't get up to full operating temps. Driving a cold car for a few miles, shutting it off, turning it on again, then shutting it off again, is the worst thing you can do to an engine.
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  47.  @rightlanehog3151  Take care of your equipment and it'll take care of you. It always blows my mind when people don't take care of their vehicles. They're depreciating assets, you might as well get as much life out of them as possible.
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  48. Either change it regularly, or don't change it at all. The word "Lifetime" just means the life of the car, which means a completely different thing to an automaker versus someone that drives their vehicles for a long time. IMO there is no such thing as a lifetime fluid. It's marketing BS, that's all. I would bet the farm that a transmission that has been regularly serviced will outlast one that has never been serviced.
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  49. I want to know what kind of person buys a Lexus for off-roading. I don't think that's a very big market. Quite frankly I've never seen someone buy a Lexus for that purpose.
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  50. Manual transmissions are the epitome of "if it aint broke, don't fix it." Why are automakers dropping them? It makes no sense. There are people that want them. Bad move Toyota.
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