Building confidence…

I’ll be the first to admit I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to wrenching on cars. I sorta understand the fundamentals but the actual doing is nerve-racking. What if I don’t do xyz correctly? Or I strip the bolt and definitely make the 1hr job into a 3hr job? Those are the thoughts that go through my head.

I’ve always been in the camp of paying for a mechanic to fix and maintain my cars because that is what they do every single day vs me being a zip tie technician and not knowing what I’m doing. So for the past few months I’ve been slowly learning the in’s and outs of what to do and wanted to document in through the blog!

First up on learning was replacing the radiator cap. Through friends on social media, they’ve let me know that the cap with the “dog ears” needed to be on the radiator expansion tank and the circular radiator cap needs to be on the radiator! Easy swap!

Next up was replacing some missing nuts and bolts in the intake air flow system. I had a SPT intake on my car when I bought it and got it swapped back to stock air box due to it not being able to pass smog due to a a “technicality” of my CARB sticker being for previous gen. I had sourced all the parts used and forgot to get some nuts and bolts. Was a little tricky to get to since it was inside the fender well but got it all nice and tight!

Next up was the headlights. They’ve been giving me issues of not turning on and/or firing only one headlight on. Finally decided to try and fix them and it took all morning to swap the ballasts and harness over but I’m glad I finally have working headlights again! Was definitely frustrating trying to fish the harness through the headlight holes!

Overall I’m glad I’m starting to gain more confidence in learning to fix these cars. Small steps but huge impact in the long run. 🤙🏻