PennSilverTaco's "Perfect 5-Lug Regular Cab" Build, Aspergers, and General BS MegaThread!

Yeah mine was an odd situation. I think in general maybe it was a lemon. I don't think it should have needed new U joints at 40K, seeing as I never went off road or in snow with it except driving it as a daily. Went through about 3-4 of the camshaft actuators (not sure why they kept breaking, as I had them done by the dealer). The top end blowing at 70K shouldn't have happened, it ends up being a common defect in the 2004-5 and a good amount of the 2006 if not all in that year..both the 4 and 5 cylinders had this issue. It was mostly that GM basically dicked me around and charged me extra for a timing chain job that was supposed to be included under warranty, then the dealer and main office each said it should have been covered and blamed the other. Main office also tried telling me that's normal for any vehicle; after I got done laughing, I told him about the buyback of Cupcake's 13 year old Tacoma and asked which of those 2 situations is more "normal"..surprise, no answer. I had little trust in the truck after that and kinda looked occasionally for another vehicle, happened to find this truck and things happened.

I've heard it as "never stick your dick in crazier than you"..if I had followed that one, it wouldn't leave me much off the list hahaha

I actually was in Newark for one night in 2018, at the Prudential Center for a show. Went to Atlantic City for 3 days after, stopping at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. My time in Newark was pretty much walking from hotel to arena and back, about 5 minutes or less each way plus the streets were crawling with my kind of people that night haha

 

Just arrived home in PA! I drove the entire way, and I am super-tired as a result, so I will uploading the vacation pictures tomorrow...

 

Sleep well man, great to finally meet ya!!

 

Glad you had a safe trip.

 

Looking forward to seeing them.

 

My mom's 2013 Murano is exponentially more comfortable than my Tacoma, and among other things it has Bluetooth and a backup camera that actually work properly. The Tacoma's backup camera is getting replaced in October, but that's not the point. I like my mom's car, but it's just that, my mom's car.

My parents bought it used in September 2014 with less than 12,000 miles on it, and it holds the distinction of being the newest vehicle my parents ever paid cash for. My grandma died in January 2015, a little over four months after my parents bought the Murano. My mom had been driving down to Virginia probably twice a month to see her mother for the last six months of her life. My dad had his Honda Pilot, I had the Tacoma, and my mom didn't drive much. The Murano has logged just over 32K miles in a little over 8 years, whereas by comparison my dad bought the Pilot new and put almost 100K miles on it in just over five years. If it weren't COVID, the Yukon that replaced the Pilot would probably be closing in on 80K or so (My dad bought it used with 8,200 and it has at least 46K almost four years later). It took me two months shy of a decade to hit 100K in my truck, which was also bought new. Just over three years after I hit 100K, I am rapidly approaching 160K!

My mom's Nissan is meticulously maintained and has incredibly low miles for its age, but I don't trust a Nissan CVT to hold up for the amount of miles I put on a vehicle every year. Also, it's not a truck. Ever more importantly, it's not my vehicle.

I put well over 700 miles (possibly over 800) on my mom's Nissan over the last week, and I feel like I should have put those miles on my truck.

Without a doubt, the Murano is better suited to carrying me and Porter comfortably on a long trip than the Tacoma is, and let's not forget the luggage I had in the Murano as well. I plan on buying one of those softopper things so my bed is suited to hauling luggage on the rain, but the cab is nowhere near as comfortable as that of the Murano.

The most consecutive time spent in my truck with another person would have to be the time my dad and I drove it to Northern Virginia in the spring of 2010 to meet my mom and her family for the weekend.

Just over a year ago, I drove two hours to Corvettes at Carlisle with my then-girlfriend and two hours back (everybody who follows me knows what an uncontrolled dumpster fire she turned out to be).

However, the trip to upstate New York in July was solo, as has been every trip to a car show this year.

 

On another note, as stated last week, after spending more than ten hours total in the Murano driving from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts and back, I believe that the Murano either needs to have the A/C charged or that the compressor is giving out. It seems to cycle an awful lot even in relatively warm temperatures, and it actually stops blowing cold, albeit very briefly...

My friend Doug just dropped $1,200 having the A/C compressor replaced in his 2011 Nissan Altima over the summer, my other friend just replaced the compressor in his girlfriend's 2009 Murano after it spontaneously shit the bed. Altimas and Muranos both have the same 3.5L V6, and likely the same A/C compressor, so I'm noticing a pattern here that may not be a coincidence...

 

My parents have been incredibly lucky with regards to A/C in vehicles over the last 40 years or so. My dad's 1978 MGB roadster and 1986 Mazda B2000, and my mom's 1985 Ford Escort, did not have A/C. Every other vehicle we've had has been air-conditioned. Not including the 1987 Mercedes 300E that my dad "borrowed" from my grandma for a year and a half (August 2003-May 2005), only four vehicles we've owned have had problems with the A/C...

• My dad's 1993 Chevy S-10 Blazer, which blew a seal at the orifice tube a week after he bought it and released a cloud of Freon into the cabin through the defogger vent. Not even a year later, in May 1994, a similar thing happened without the dramatic Freon purge in my dad's presence. The warranty covered repairs both times, but as much as I loved the Blazer, I believe it was a lemon.
• The 1996 Nissan Pathfinder SE that my dad traded the 1993 Blazer for had to have the A/C recharged in the summer of 2003 when it suddenly stopped blowing cold. My dad and I don't remember what was wrong with it, but I'm pretty sure the problem was fixed rather than a simple recharge, because the A/C never had to be service again for the remaining six years we owned it.
• The 2000 GMC Safari conversion van had the most A/C problems of any vehicle my parents ever owned. My parents bought it new in May 2000 and traded it for a new Honda Odyssey in May 2004. The A/C had to be recharged every spring, and even when working it didn't seem adequate at times. It was supposed to have rear A/C, but what it really had was a "rear fan" tapped into the primary A/C system by the conversion company. When the van was maybe two months old, my mom had several of our relatives in the van when they went out for lunch or something, and she recalls having to freeze herself out with the front A/C when the rear passengers complained about the lackluster performance of the rear A/C.
• The fourth vehicle is my Tacoma, which developed this odd issue in 2017 where the A/C blew warm out of the passenger side. The issue turned out to be a leaky evaporator, which cost a fortune to replace.

 

Charlie check out this story. Crazy. U ever goto this show?
https://www.post-gazette.com/news/c...ood-car-rally-pedestrian/stories/202209250185

 

I don’t know much about A/C.
So I’d probably have to pay someone to fix it for me.

I don’t do A/C or Automatic Transmission work.
They are both beyond my abilities.

 

My automatic transmission has been great thus far; I've had the fluid flushed and changed a couple times, but no issues in nearly 160K miles!

 

@ABA180
@BkerChuck
@ColoradoTJ
@shakerhood
@steelcity2
@Taco critter
@TnShooter
@wilcam47

I am zombifying the Tacoma again this year! The decal kits should arrive by Friday at the very latest. The black decals will be applied to the silver paint, and the white decals will be applied to the black trim and windows...

 

And I bought this for the back window...

 

It’s going to be hard for you to beat what you did last year.
I bet you will have it looking great in no time.

 

Will be fun for Halloween again.

 

Looks like Dory and Marlin ended up at the new Petco in Warrington; I have no idea where Nemo could be...

 

They say that the blue tang is easy to care for, but if the pH balance in your saltwater aquarium is off even slightly, your $120 fish is belly-up...

 

I found Nemo!

 

Marlin and Nemo are much more reasonably priced than Dory...

 

Okay, so now back to regularly scheduled programming; Massachusetts vacation pictures!


September 20th, 2022:

Rockport, Massachusetts