New England B.S. Thread

If I have to eat dealership costs I'd support Boch around here.

Looks like 175-225$ range - I'd check Rockauto. "Toyota" doesn't make those, that's all farmed out. Toyota actually makes very little nowadays, my guess would be finishing on the blocks and heads (castings done outhouse). I'd bet 20$ they just outsource the alternators as an assembly.

http://artoflean.com/index.php/2014/01/07/444/

Toyota roughly outsources about 70% of the parts of the overall vehicle. Roughly 30% or so are made in-house for very specific reasons.

 

They absolutely outsource alts. If you buy (bought? do they still sell new Densos or just remans?) a new Denso you get 'em with the toyota branding milled off the castings. Single production line. Same with water pumps. I'm sure there are more, but I know those from personal experience.

 

Yea Toyota has been using the same manufacturers for years for the most part. Rockauto will also tell you if the part is made by the OE manufacturer or not

 

When I bought an updated Aisin metal clutch master cylinder, and I saw on RockAuto on the Aisin timing cover for the 2TR, that Aisin just ground off the Toyota logo on their parts to sell them aftermarket, even though they come off the same line that makes Toyota OEM parts.

 

i've used mcgeorge before, usually one of the cheaper ones. I think they have like two websites though? One usually cheaper but the other can have free shipping so you have to compare.. kind of odd.

 

I won't do anything with Boch. They overcharged me on a small part that I needed. I paid it because I didn't want to call around to find one at the actual MSRP.

That is consistent with everything I've heard about Boch for the last 35 or so years.

Since I needed three of the part and Boch only had one, I ended up ordering on line from Sullivan Brothers. I drover over there and picked them up in person as opposed to having them shipped.

They had them in stock and only charged MSRP.

 

I have a couple of mystery stains on the seats of my Tacoma. Settled down, you freaks.

I suspect it might be from my wife opening a diet soda too quickly, but I'm not really sure.

Other than paying to have the interior detailed again, can anyone suggest a good upholstery product?

 

I mix a small amount of laundry detergent into a spray bottle of water. Works great!

 

The route I just went. Sullivan is a few minutes further than Copeland is but they had the part available and I'll run there in the morning. I've used both of them before with no issues.

 

If Copeland had on line availability then I would have gone there. Maybe they do, but I just missed it.

 

You can search it online but not order like Sullivan. All else equal that's 12 minutes roughly from me.

 

Copeland is maybe 15 minutes for me. 20 if I stop at Cumbies and grab a $0.99 coffee. I bring my own 30oz mug now that they allow that again.

 

About the same, depends on if I run in for an energy drink or not

 

I had an energy drink once. Well, half of one because I couldn't stand the taste. Coffee is my energy drink.

 

Never could stomach coffee..

 

Wimp!

 

I have one of them Bissell carpet things. If you're near Providence we can give it a whack.

Otherwise they're only ("only") 100 bucks now. I don't remember paying that much for mine but I'm sure I did. Things great - we have carpets in the bedrooms and we use it there too. I don't worry about muddy dog at all in the truck etc. Can find a generic (not bissel) or used one probably pretty cheap.

 

I was about to say, a portable carpet cleaner is fantastic for cleaning car interiors, my father bought one years ago when we had our family cat, but now we use it for our cars/trucks, furniture, etc. Here is the newer version of ours:
https://www.bissell.com/little-green-pet-portable-carpet-cleaner-1400W.html

If you didn't want to make the investment in one of those machines, you could also mix carpet/fabric cleaner in a spray bottle with warm water, and use it for spot cleaning with a clean rag to dry/scrub the stain (works well for small stains on seats!).

 

I used to live on Mountain Dew, 2-3 bottles a day. About 20 beers too but that's another story....

 

I worked with a guy who drank at least a two liter bottle of that stuff each shift. He switched to diet Mountain Dew because he had so many cavities.