Finished up my truck and got it aligned at a shop.

Replaced serp belt, engine air filter, cabin air filter, and a broken wheel stud on a 9th gen Civic.

Changed the oil in my wife's TLX.

[Edited on October 23, 2026 at 7:34 PM. Reason : i really wish I had a high enough ceiling for a lift]

10/23/2026 7:25:09 PM

Could you perhaps lower the floor?

[Edited on October 24, 2026 at 5:58 PM. Reason : Just saying that sounds like $texas]

10/24/2026 5:57:39 PM

Maybe eventually I will tear down my shop and build a bigger one. This is just what the last resident built back in the '80s. Coincidentally, he was a mechanic and did auto work out of the shop until his health declined and he passed away. I think he was a retired diesel mechanic who did work on the side in retirement. From what I've been told, he was a really good mechanic. Not long after I moved in, I actually had someone pull up looking for him to get some work done on their car.

The Transit 250 with the Ecoboost that I've worked on a few times came back today with an oil leak. He was thinking it was the valve cover again, which I just did a few weeks ago. I used a mirror to show him where it appeared to be leaking from the vacuum pump. I pulled the valve cover and got a better look at the vac pump and it appeared to be leaking from the joint with the cylinder head and from the vac pump housing split itself. Pulled the vac pump and found the seal to the head failed. Replaced the vac pump and put the valve cover back on.

Guy brought a 1998 Lexus ES300 with a bunch of parts. It had a leaky steering rack, blown out lower control arm bushings, and shredded boots on one CV axle. I replaced the rack with new tie rods and ends, lower control arms, ball joints, sway bar links, and CV axles. There was also an O2 sensor in there, but I saw no CEL and I didn't have time to hook up the scanner and dig into it. He didn't seem too worried about that. It does need a few other things. The temp gauge and oil pressure sensor aren't working and the windshield is cracked. 255k miles and a pretty clean car for the age. It's a shame they brought super cheap parts.

Neighbor walked over and said something was up with his riding mower transmission. I found the shift/speed control lever linkage had come loose from the frame. Looked like it should have a cotter pin or something, but there was no hole in the pin, so I just welded a washer on the end to keep it in the hole in the frame. Works great now.

[Edited on October 24, 2026 at 7:44 PM. Reason : mower job]

10/24/2026 7:42:03 PM