My Cars If you have a similar car to my Supra (1986.5-1992), check out the 1990 Toyota Supra Repair Manual. July 2005 I drove to Eagle Crest in my Subaru with my girlfriend on the 9th. It was a fun drive with lots of corners through the mountains around which the Legacy Outback had a surprising amount of grip, probably thanks to the new, wider tires I put on. It could use a little stiffer suspension and the whole car shakes and rumbles when I go hard on the brakes. I'm afraid that the brake rotors might be warped. On the drive back, on the 11th, she hit 100,000 miles. I got a picture at 99,999 miles and 100,000 miles while driving. Then I took another, sharper picture when we stopped for gas at 100,002 miles. July 2004 On the 6th I drove up to Beaverton, made a call on a 1995 Subaru Legacy Outback, drove up to Vancouver Washington, and then bought it for $3400. Unfortunately it has reconstructed on the title, but it is in very good condition and only has 96,080 miles on it. The engine looks in very good shape and it drives well. Back, front, side, engine pictures. Pictures with Supra: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. One of the first things I noticed with this car was that the right turn signal blinked too fast. As it turned out someone had put the wrong kind of bulb in as a replacement. Once I fixed that it worked normally. After the first time I washed the Subaru I noticed that it had been repainted, possibly when it was reconstructed. It used to be some sort of red color and now it is more of a brown. The Outback label has been broken off, the Subaru insignia is missing in the front, and there are a few dents and dings. Also, the shifter has a weird feel because it doesn't pull back to the middle when in neutral from the left side. It works fine from the right, but when going from 2nd to 3rd gear I have to find the middle first before I can shift into the gear. On the 25th I drove my Supra back from Eugene up to Corvallis. Even though it was in the 80's and I had the AC on the whole way, the car did not overheat during the 40 mile trip. Perhaps this is because I had it on cruise control most the time, but I've done that before and its overheated. I'm starting to wonder if I have a BHG at all. I should probably get it checked out for sure. If I find out that there is no major problem, then I may not sell the car. Until then though, the car is still for sale. I took the Supra in to get checked out on the 30th. They could not find any problems with it and they said it was definitely not a blown head gasket. This is both good and bad. Good because the Supra is find, but bad because I already bought a new car. The guys at the shop think the problem is probably a sticking thermostat. This is kinda ironic, because I bought a thermostat for the Supra over a year ago. When I got a new water temperature sender gauge in early June of 2003 I also bought a thermostat and a new radiator cap, but I never installed them. I will probably try to install the thermostat sometime before the end of the summer and then I am planning on giving the Supra to my girlfriend. She needs a car and I don't need two, and I really don't want to sell the Supra. Of course, she'll have to learn how to drive a stick shift first. June 2004 I decided to replace the spark plugs myself since labor alone at Firestone would be about $200. I bought myself a small socket set with a spark plug socket and an extension bar. I went with NGK Iridium spark plugs. My old spark plugs were pretty shot: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. In order to get to all the spark plugs I had to take off the throttle body. Which I finally got off and was quite dirty on the inside so I cleaned it out with a paper towel. On the 14th I washed my car and took a couple pictures while a couple neighbor kids laughed at me. Picture 1, and 2. By the middle of the month I started to realize what might be wrong with my car, as it overheated on the hour and a half drive to and back from Beaverton. I looked up the symptoms for a blown head gasket online, the dreaded third generation Supra disease. My car had many of them: overheating up hills an on long drives, coolant loss, jumpy temperature needle, bubbling coolant reservoir, white smoke from exhaust on start up, rough idling right after start up, and (in the past) gurgling from inside the dashboard. I went out on the 24th and bought myself a combustion leak test kit from NAPA and tested my car. It turned out positive, meaning I have a blown head gasket almost for sure, unless I messed up on the test and some coolant got into test tube. Here is a picture of the results, yellow is bad. On the 27th I took one of the last pictures I may ever take of my car, as I am putting it up for sale. I am currently asking $2100, but I am negotiable on the price some. If you are interested you can contact me by e-mail or leave me a message on my forum. May 2004 On the 7th I went camping near Estacada. I took several pictures of my car: 1, 2, 3, 4. I noticed that my car was leaking a lot of oil. On the 18th I took my car in to the local Honda dealership for a free inspection. They found that all the brake hoses were cracking and that there was oil leaking from the drain plug which they fixed for free by putting in a washer. My guess is Firestone is at fault, as my car starting leaking after I took it there to have the oil changed. On the 28th I drove down to Lake Shasta. On the way down I noticed my car starting to overheat on hills. I also set a new personal speed record on Interstate 5 in California. Before I left I took a picture of my car. On the 31st I headed back to Oregon. My car was overheating a lot, especially on hills. When I stopped to get gas the coolant reservoir was shaking and bubbling. April 2004 I finally was able to order a mirror off on eBay and put it on my car. It is not black, but the metallic brown mirror blends in pretty well. I had the oil changed at Firestone again on the 25th. They recommended a tune up, which includes a fuel filter and spark plugs and costs $400. March 2004 This picture shows where my Supra spends most of its time these days. I really can't drive it to school because its so hard to find parking spaces at college, and I don't have a parking pass anyway. On the 19th I went out to my car to find the driver side mirror had been clipped. The outside housing had been partially shattered, and the mirror part had broken off of the housing in one place so was loosely fixed in place. As a temporary solution I used some duct tape and black paint. Pictures: before 1 and 2, after 1 and 2. On the 22nd I set a new personal speed record in my Supra driving back from a barbeque in Beaverton. February 2004 I broke 195,000 miles on the 20th. January 2004 Some little neighbor kid was playing outside and decided to wipe the snow off part of my car. I had my front tires replaced with the new tires on the 2nd. I wanted to get them on before I took my trip to Sunriver, supposedly they offer superior snow traction. The weather was so awful on the 6th and 7th that school was closed, one of the rare times in history when Oregon State University was shut down due to weather. There was freezing rain, many trees fell down, and the power went out in my grid for a good portion of one of the days. Of course, I had to go out and practice my winter driving with my new tires. The snow on my car was frozen and I had to use hot water on the keyholes just to unlock it. I didn't get to drive much because the rain was freezing on my windshield so I couldn't see where I was going. On the 15th, one of my roommates helped me change my alternator and A/C drive belts. On the 16th I made the drive from Corvallis to Sunriver and then came back on the 19th without any car trouble. December 2003 My new tires, Continental ContiExtremeContact, arrived on the 16th. It snowed in Eugene over my winter break. Picture taken on the 29th. November 2003 I was able to find someone to install my struts and springs for only $150! They were installed on the 20th. In comparison, here are the old struts, springs, and TEMS actuators. I probably almost saved a pound on dirt alone! I plan on taking out some more TEMS related stuff soon to further (barely) reduce the weight of my car. I really like the slightly lowered look, hopefully it will handle as well as it looks. More pictures coming soon. On the 21st, at 194,156 miles, I had Firestone align my wheels and do a general inspection. They found that I need new tires (despite having less than 10,000 miles), new belts, and my power steering fluid needs to be flushed. Estimated cost of $715. Picture taken on the morning of the 23rd. I ordered two new tires from Tire Rack on the 28th. October 2003 I ordered new Tokico (non-TEMS) struts for my car. On the 18th I added oil to my car, forgot to put the oil cap back on, and drove to Eugene from Corvallis with the intention of installing my new struts when I arrived. After gathering several necessary tools, like spring compressors, I began work on the front right suspension. After failing miserably I put it back together and hung out with some of my friends. The next morning I started work on the right rear. I managed to get it apart, but I was not able to remove the strut from the car. I also was not able to get it back in. I started to worry that I wouldn't have a car to bring me back in time for class on Monday. Finally my neighbor, who owns a used car dealership and works on cars, came over and after about an hour we got the suspension back to normal. He suggested I put tuberware over the oil cap's hole until I got back to Corvallis. This was all at 193,980 miles. On the whole drive back my dash lights were out so I had to use a small flashlight and set my cruise control to know my speed. On the 22nd I order Greddy springs to go along with my struts, whenever I install them. September 2003 On the 9th I did some filming of my Supra for a movie I was making. Here is a short clip. I took my car in to have the coolant system flushed and the calipers replaced at 193,555 miles on the 13th. The coolant was in terrible condition and I will have to flush the system again in about four or five months and replace the drain plug. I am going to have to switch to thicker oil to keep from leaking as much. Repair would cost about $250. Unfortunately, the new calipers did not fix the pull problem. I will have to bring it in again to have the alignment double checked. The rear struts are going out. I am considering getting Tokico Illumina II Struts and some lowering springs. I need to look into the car's records and see if the timing belt has been done recently. On the 21st I moved into my new home for college in Corvallis, Oregon. The Supra made the trip with no problems. I should be getting a new digital camera soon so new, better pictures will be on the way. August 2003 I caught a nail in my tire on the 5th at around 193,300 miles. Tires are no longer plugged it seems so I had to have it patched. July 2003 My car was broken into the night of the 8th. All my CD's, my radar detector, and about five dollars worth of coins were stolen. The thieves tried to start my car with their key but it broke of in my ignition. I had to call A-1 Lock & Safe to remove the bit of key on the 10th at 192,853 miles. After the key was removed I took apart both the driver and passenger side doors and swapped the lock switches because the driver's side didn't work and it was required to set the theft deterrent system. Picture: front-right. On the 19th and at 193,165 miles I got back from a week-long trip that included counseling at Camp Kellogg and visiting my grandparents in Coquille. My poor car was burning and leaking oil pretty bad and I'm going to have it checked out soon. It was also leaking water. There was a gravel road that led in to and out of the camp I was at. On the way out I hit the brakes too hard around a corner, locking them and causing my car to slide off the road. There was no apparent damage besides my pride fortunately. I did not bring my camera or I'd have a picture of it. It was quite a sight with the right rear tire lifted about a foot above the ground and the front end off the side of the road. It took a tractor to pull it back using a steel cable attached to one of the tow rings on the rear bumper. On the positive side I averaged over 22 mpg on the highway which is right there with the EPA's 23 mpg rating for highway. I was getting discouraged with 14 mpg in the city because the EPA states 18 mpg for a 1987 Toyota Supra, but that was probably just due to a lot more stops and shorter driving distances than is estimated for city driving. I was counseling at a camp from the 20th to the 25th. I took a few pictures of my car parked out by the cabins next to another counselor's brand new Jetta. Thursday picture. Friday picture 1 and 2. June 2003 After bringing my car in to Firestone to have my oil changed the temperature gauge starts reading insane levels of heat. I had to replace the water temperature sender gauge on the 6th, at 192,661 miles. I took my car in on the 16th at 192,715 miles to have the muffler replaced because I had a hole in my old one and to have the front end aligned. Picture of the new muffler. The mechanic found my clutch slave was leaking so on the 17th I had to replace my clutch slave cylinder at 192,743 miles. He also found that I have a brake pull and new calipers will run me around $300. I have not yet got around to doing that. May 2003 Picture of my car and I and just the car. I had the oil changed at Firestone on the 22nd at 192,534 miles. April 2003 Car was getting loud due to a crack in muffler that was morphing into a large hole. March 2003 Pictures: front, front-left, back, wheel, emblem, and interior in the driveway; front, back-right, back, side, front, lights on, and engine in the street. February 2003 February was a very cold month. Especially earlier in the morning. It took a while to unthaw my Supra at times. My K&N FIPK finally arrives on the 7th. I installed it immediately at 191,670 miles. K&N FIPK installed picture. I had the oil changed at Firestone on the 9th at 191,685 miles. January 2003 I bought a K&N FIPK intake on the 1st from suprastore.com. One of my fog lights was out so I installed new HKS H3 bulbs on the 7th at 191,300 miles. On the 11th the car wouldn't start. I had the electrical system checked and it turned out to be the battery, which was odd because it was only a few months old. It was replaced free of charge, yet grudgingly, by NAPA at 191,410 miles. I got sick of the tape deck and replaced it with an Alpine CD player at Circuit City on the 14th at 191,457 miles. Here's a picture of the old tape deck after I removed it. It sounds so much better now, with the added benefit of playing CD's. Picture of the new Alpine CD player. On the 20th and at 191,504 miles I replaced the front right side marker light. On the 23rd I went in to AutoZone and picked up new hood lifts as my hood would not stay up anymore. Installed at 191,560 miles. Picture of the old and shot hood lifts. December 2002 I found a light blue 1987 Toyota Supra listed on autotrader.com for $2,500 with 191,000 miles. I e-mailed the owner and said that I was going to Portland, Oregon, before Christmas to visit some relatives and might be able to stop by in Newberg to look at his Supra on my way home. I e-mailed him again while visiting my relatives and set up a time to look at the car. I wasn't actually expecting to buy it, but it turned out to be in really good condition so I bought my non-turbo 1987 Toyota Supra on the 23rd of December, 2002, for $2,400. Pictures from the day after: front and back in my driveway.