SOLVED! Post 2853 Leaking Injectors, Dealer Techs Rock! Extended Cranking after Engine Swap 3.4L 5vz

Uh oh. Here we go again.

We got a warning light in the Tacoma.





















































For low wiper fluid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Thursday TW!!

 

Not funny.

You got me.

 

I thought it was funny. Oops. Sorry buddy.

I actually am a teensy bit concerned about it, because we've barely used any since we last filled it, yet it was super low when we refilled it this morning. Can that stuff evaporate in hot weather I wonder? Or else we might have a slow leak I suppose? Eric said he remembers replacing a seal in there a few years back because it was leaking. Maybe it's got the same leak again?

I still get such a kick out of starting it and driving it, every single time. Enjoying every moment of the Taco. Sorry for the false alarm. Figured we were due for some drama/humor on the thread, seeing as how it's been pretty low key lately.

 

Its a know fact that the bottles get very brittle and will break. Be very careful closing the cap. You can snap the filler neck pretty easy. I would not be surprised if you sprung a leak. It does evaporate a bit as well.

 

Thinking about building a carport. I think we could get away with that along the side of our house in the existing driveway, which would allow us to avoid taking up a bunch of the back yard with a garage. Plus it would be a hell of a lot cheaper and easier/faster.

Then also still consider moving in the spring, to a place that either has a garage or that has ample space to build a big one. If we can find the right place.

The carport would go right here over the Taco, and we'd pour a slab underneath and run a french drain line along the edge of the house probably. It rains hard in Oregon, and that's a lotta impervious surface (concrete) replacing the current pervious surface (gravel). Thoughts?

 

That is not a good idea if you are selling in the near future. Only spend money on things that will help sell a house. A car port is fine if you are staying, but a big waste of money if it won't help sell a house.

 

Oh wow. Just heard about the shooting at the community college in southern Oregon. Sounds like a lot of innocent people were killed. What the hell is wrong with people? Who would do such a thing???????????????????????

@bry838 , don't you live in that general area? I hope everything is OK with you and yours.

 

this is Jen we are talking about, so naturally she will take 6 months just to figure out what "kind" of house she wants then 8 more months to decide what "town" to move to then when she finds everything exactly like she wants and at the right price, she will still not buy it because its the wrong paint color or something.

 

Gosh what a terrible thing!!! Thanks for the concern, no family involved but ive got two coworkers that live in roseburg....so...itll hit them pretty hard. I dont think they have any immediate family there at the college but its a relatively small community so no matter what itll have an impact.

 

Can't decide whether to or . Guess I'll do both.

 

Wow. This whole thing is so shocking. Really horribly sad for those poor people. How terrifying to experience something like that. Hope all is well with your coworkers and their families. And I hope we start seeing less of these tragedies instead of more. It's really awful that this kind of crap seems to be happening more and more often. I don't know what the solution is, but something has to change.

 

As long as you have weapons free zones only the honest people go unarmed

 

Yip!!! But most people dont quite seem to understand that concept....

 

I'm just sad for those poor people affected by it. I don't really want to debate the pros and cons of gun control.



We started a new project on a whim. Finally decided to put in a pocket door to our bathroom, something we've talked about doing for years.

Except then because of the configuration of where the door will slide into when it's "open" we decided to go ahead and demo a small, kind of unnecessary hall closet to add space to the bathroom.

Which means electrical work to move some outlets and light switches - and we have zero experience doing anything electrical, other than changing light fixtures with only super basic wiring steps involved.

And means we'll have to re-drywall some areas, something we also have zero experience doing.

And which also means we're going to be taking a crack at pouring a concrete vanity top, something we also have zero experience with. And modifying our existing sink cabinet, or building a new one from scratch. And buying new sinks.

And also means replacing the floor with tile - yep, zero tiling experience also. And doing the floor will probably prompt us to replace the toilet while it's pulled out anyway. Zero plumbing experience also.

Funny how finally putting in an $80 pocket door frame over a weekend suddenly turned into a hundreds of dollars and many weekends project. Building the sink cabinet is about the only step I'm semi confident on - we have LOTS of experience building all sorts of crap with wood!

Excited but also kinda scared right now. Ripping out drywall, and somewhat scratching our heads at the electrical. Is it too early to drink?

What are you all up to out there this weekend, TW???????????

 

Finalizing my rtmr install with lights and 9 switches, six in the "din" with paranoids switch holder, one next to the steering colum where the empty slot is (also used for the diff lock if equiped) and lastly two above the in cab fuse box. Cut two slots in the plastic there for them....

 

really! I had to go all the to the bottom of page 7 to find this thread?



is Jen in the hospital?
has her computer broken?
has her internet service been disconnected?

no fence updates
no house search updates
no new project updates
no repair questions
no cookie pictures
no dolley pictures
no nuttin

 

If your thinking about moving,,save your bucks Jen.

 

Hey there buddy!! Awww, nice to know you're thinking of me! Alright, you asked for it. Here comes a nice looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong post, my specialty

Been thinking of you guys too, wondering what all you TW peeps have been up to!! How's everyone been???? How are all the Tacos doing out there???????

I've been busy obsessing over what to do with our bathroom vanity. Thought about building a new vanity top from concrete (or attempting to anyway!), or doing butcher block with a crapload of the proper sealant for the wood/water concern, or doing granite or marble tiles (or attempting to anyway!), or buying a ready to go, sink already mounted vanity top at a big box store. Can't decide. Each option has it's merits and drawbacks in terms of cost, level of difficulty, overall looks, maintenance, etc.

To make the decision process even tougher, the length of the space is now right on the cusp of being able to have two sinks vs. just one, because we took out a teeny tiny closet in that area. So the space measures ~50", give or take an inch or two pending how we deal with some electrical wires. According to Ikea, we have PLENTY of space for 2 sinks. You know, the store that sells everything in miniature sizing According to standard vanity top sizing, we are ~10" short (standard is ~60"). I think if we built our own vanity top from concrete or wood, and chose 2 of the right small undermount sinks and carefully planned the spacing/layout of it all, it could look nice and not feel too cramped. Or we could go for the IKEA double sink, which would be the easiest option and also probably the cheapest, but I just don't know how I'd actually feel about their mini size. I kinda picture water spraying all over every time I'd turn on the faucet in that dinky little sink!! But they are super affordable and have a nice, clean, simple look.

As usual, this is how I feel about trying to make a decision:

As usual, this is how Eric feels every time I change my mind again:

Pretty sure I've announced that this is the "FINAL, FINAL, FINAL CHOICE THIS TIME!" at least 5,000 times in the past 2 weeks.

On other fronts, we are still thinking of looking for a new house in spring/summer, to finally address the garage problem. We love all else about this house, but we just can't lick that problem unless we move. There just isn't a cost effective way of adding a nice big garage to our property with the way it's laid out. We could turn some of the front of our house into a small garage then add square footage to the back of the house and still have a decent yard, but that's about all we could do. Otherwise we'd have to have this weird wacky long driveway to build an accessible garage on blank ground in the back and it would make the layout of the property and the yard super weird and crappy. Since I really don't think it'd be fun or cost effective to turn our office into a garage, moving seems the best option. To a nice big property preferably, so we don't outgrow it anytime soon. Another small house sounds great to me (less to clean, cheaper utilities, less room to accumulate crap you don't really need), but a nice BIG lot would be awesome, with plenty o' shed/garage/yard/outdoor hangout areas. We spend most of our time in the yard or the shed anyway!! And you all know how we loveourtacolots - it's about time she had a proper indoor home.

So, the desire to move is part of what prompted the bathroom remodel - to get it spruced up before selling. Started with just doing a pocket door, but then we had to semi demo that little closet to install it. Then decided to ditch the closet altogether for a bigger vanity space. Then decided to replace the floor. And it just keeps snowballing it seems. But it makes sense to me to do it - it was desperately in need of updating to be "sale ready." The old laminate counter and floors were worthy. In the resale regard, even though it would be most expensive vanity option compared to a more DIY approach, it's tempting to get the ready to go granite one at a big box store, because I know stuff like that can go a long way in asking top dollar at sale time (can you tell I'm an HGTV addict?). No matter how nicely we'd build and finish a butcher block type counter (and I'm pretty confident we could do a beautiful job at that), I think there'd be potential buyers looking at it and going, "Wood? No way! That'll need to be replaced immediately!" And if the tile or concrete don't turn out the way I imagine in my head, we could be in the same predicament. Did I mention we have zero experience with tile in general or with building concrete counters?

Any of you TW peeps ever build a concrete or butcher block counter?

Ever tile one by cutting giant tiles of granite or marble with one of those giant wet saws? Been starting to read up on various saws and methods of smoothing cut stone edges, etc. Still have a lot to learn though.

Ever DIY a coutertop of any kind?

Anyone have strong opinions on bathroom sinks and counters in any regard?


This is how I picture the concrete vanity to look, except we'd add dye to the mix to make it a darker grey/charcoal color:



IKEA option, and we'd probably build something like this person did for it, except a little bigger and with closed cabinet storage below:


Butcher block inspiration pics, a few ways to approach it. Seems like it'd be ideal to find a design that prevents mounting the faucet onto the wood, like these examples:



Don't have a good example pic of what I envision the tile vanity/counter option to look like yet, I'll share if I find one.

And I'm sure you all are already familiar with what the ready to go vanity tops at the big box stores look like.

Thoughts, opinions, and personal experiences with bathroom remodeling/working with tile would be much appreciated!!

Hope you are all doing well and in good spirits and health and all that good stuff!! Can't believe it's nearing the 1 yr anniv. of the thread's birth. Wow. Been one heck of a year. Definitely made better by plenty o' laugh time on TW! Cheers guys!

 

skip the concrete, DONT DO IT, you have to constantly reseal them and they absorb moisture and odors as well as stain and doiscolor.

here you go my little recycler friend, buy a used Marbella shower alcove you can buy off of facebook and cut it to use as your vanity top, save money and recycle to save the planet at the same time when you do it. you can also find vanity tops people have replaced and are selling

I just bought two for myself seen in that post for just $25 each and will be using them to make my kitchen countertops with. they come 5ftx5ft for the back wall and the side walls are usually between 36"-32" wide x 5ft high so you will have lots of extra for making stuff like covering end tables and whatnot. if need be you can epoxy two pieces together to make it longer then 5ft.

to use it you put a 3/4" plywood on top of the vanity then cover with durock concrete backer board then used silicone to glue the top to it.

use epoxy to glue 2 more strips on the front to make the 1 1/2" front lip (the Marbella is 1/2" thick) and cut it with a masonry blade on a skill saw then you sand down the edge until smooth and shiny (youtube has videos showing how to do this with granite and marble which is the same but Marbella is thinner so you need to triple the edge to get it 1 1/2" thick and use the durock under it to help support it) see video below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--h-d6EVvkg

send cookies to: "I want sweats now @ im hungry right now dammit"

 

My eyes went straight to that part

OK, here's a cookie for ya, even served with milk!!