Category: car

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car

Toyota customer support program for engine maintenance light

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Certain Toyota models in recent years. I brought the 2020 Camry to the dealer this am, and it was indeed the coolant engine valve issue #24TE04 – this link goes to the PDF file hosted at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) website. The PDF file has the complete list of impacted model and year.

My local Toyota dealer fixed it at no cost for me – share here for awareness as I think both Camry and RAV4 were top selling sedans 🚘 or small SUVs 🚙 , respectively, during those years.

一般情况下，engine 的灯亮，如果发动机温度正常，不冒烟，其它都正常，应该也还好。但是我也很理解女性司机对这些灯亮感到紧张。这也是我把它给修好的一个原因因为这车主要是我太太和孩子开；另外一个原因是manufacturer warranty cover 了这一项。

Earlier: 好像这个问题是wide spread 的。困扰了我大概一个星期，因为这个warning 一下子有，一下子没。一开始我以为是oil change 的提示：她家的车一般有每五千英里换机油的提示。结果换了机油还是有这个warning.油管上有巨多的相关视频 here are couple YT videos – DIY: Replace Toyota RAV4 Coolant Shut-off Valve • Easy Repair Step-by-Step Codes P268111 & p268115 and Free Toyota Coolant Leak Fix | Dealer Extends Warranty For Coolant Bypass Valve . 一个原因是Camry 和RAV 4在这里销量是排在前的。我想很有可能是丰田在设计和制造上的缺陷。

I also made two YT Shorts video, here is one and two.

PS: some good YT videos on Toyota maintenance: These JAPANESE SECRETS Will Make Your Toyota And Lexus Last Over 700k Miles (Japanese Motors) and Toyota Owners Stop Making These Critical Mistakes! (The Car Care Nut)

PS 2: The Car Care Nut has a video How To Get Over 300k Miles Out of Your Modern Toyota on Toyota maintenance to keep the car last longer.

Btw, he has a car shop TCCN Automotive Inc. in Chicago, and I just realized St. Louis has a similar mind car repair shop too – Jamco – (Japanese Auto Maintenance Co) – here is their Google review and I came across one comment:

“Established in 1975 by David Monnig as a Honda & Toyota specialized repair service. Built on honesty and integrity, JAMCO Is still operated In the same fashion today. With old fashioned customer service, owners Micki Monnig & Don Mascare, with long term mechanic Kent, second generation mechanic Joe and secretary Heather will happily assist you with your Toyota & Honda needs.”

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advice and tips car kids Life Life Tips

Teach my older kid to drive

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I wrote this one too fast – Some kids not that interested in learning to drive nowadays 🙂 This seems to be confirmed by this Yahoo article – Gen Z is slamming the brakes on getting a driver’s license.

话音未落，I started to teach my old kid to drive. We are already on the road, btw 🙂

We practiced on the parking lot 1st, but she got a bit bored of the parking lot, so last 2 days (I started writing this post in late Dec, FYI) I have taken her to quiet neighborhood, and she was practicing on the road. Note she is new on the road. And understandably sometimes she would get nervous if another car come by both in the front (opposing traffic), or behind. Today she almost panicked at a four way stop sign 🙂 But we survived.

12-31-2025 Today we got honked by people the 1st time, at the Hilltop neighborhood.

1-1-2025 We finally hit the real road, I mean the road with traffic lights (not just Stop sign). We drove at the Lackland near Westport, also from the Walgreens St. Ann (St. Charles rock road and Ashby) to home. Many years ago (confirmed by my wife) I taught her driving, at the industrial compound at Westport.

02-07-2026 We continued practicing on the real road, mostly on weekends.

02-10-2026 S8 drove from the St. Louis Premium Outlet Mall to home, via local obviously. She was fairly proud that she made smooth left turn from Chesterfield parkway to Olive. And re: Olive Road, she said she may miss it when she goes off to college. Other interesting facts she told me is an old story between her mom and her as her mom drove the similar route quite a few years ago – they were going to the mall as well.

Amother longer road (route) we drove recently: Olive west (from Warson), Clarkson, Manchester, and West Country Mall. She got honked when near the west county mall. There were quite a few cars because it was weekend.

Side note – Road Rage

Road rage (lu nu) is prevalent in the USA. Here in STL it’s not extremely bad, but from time to time you will see those impatient drivers or impatient people in general. Recently as I started teaching my older kid to drive, and also as I reflect on my own driving and so on, I felt I have a bit burden or worry when she eventually goes out and drives on her own.

In China people honk, here in STL people may not honk as much, but the road rage is definitely there. And in extreme or rare cases, it could turn out to be deadly (because of firearms aka the guns).

Nowadays I rarely honked at people, and I rarely honked back. I did some of that when I was younger and also when I am lacking sleep.

Categories
car DIY

How to Fix Windshield Wiper Arms

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Learned the tip here (YT video) – the nuts for the windshield wiper arm could become loose over the time (it’s quite rare, I don’t recall anything like this happened to me during my driving since Spring 1998). But it happened to me yesterday evening. The two wiper arms started clashing with each other (because one was loose). I just reset the angle and tightened the nut (the screw) this afternoon. I may have saved a trip to the car shop 🙂

Now I recall, probably 20 years ago, in a snow day, similar thing happened, the snow/ice froze the wiper arm base. Had to clean up the snow and ice to make it work again. So, I guess twice total, so far.

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car

Buying used car in St. Louis

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I have not bought used car for a while, my last two used cars are both Toyota Pre own certified: basically I found the car online, went for a test drive at the dealership and bought them.

But this morning I had opportunity to visit a used car dealer in my old neighborhood: I lived near that place about 20 years ago. I remember the good old days, in late 1990s (1998 and 1999 to be specific), when I was a graduate student in Rolla (Missouri S&T), we would buy the St. Louis Post Dispatch newspaper on a Friday, went through the paper auto classified ads section, circle out the cars we were interested, call the private owners and made appointment for Saturday. And so on.

I was not familiar with used car dealers. I did buy a used Subaru from an auto shop (note his specialty is service not selling used cars). And I bought another used Subaru in year 2010, from an owner via local Craigslist. I drove that one for about 3 years and trade it in for the used Toyota Sienna in summer 2013, without losing much value.

Btw, I liked two cars I drove this morning, a 2013 Volvo XC 60 and a 2015 Honda Odyssey EX-L. Both came with leather seats, which my Sienna doesn’t have. They came with about 144 k miles though – which is higher than my current own 2013 Sienna.

Why a used car dealer with a physical presence

I didn’t give it much thought, again you can look at my used car purchase history above. I also bought 2 other used cars while I was in Rolla. One is from a Taiwanese student and it’s a 1984 Toyota Celica (I bought it in Spring 1998).

Big picture or 40,000 feet view

YT Video from the Car Care Nut (about 1 hour 30 minutes): What is The Future Of The Automotive Industry? Featuring Savagegeese

YT video from Royalty Auto Service: Ranking The Top 5 Least Expensive Vehicles To Maintain That We Work On At Our Shop!

How Much Do Car Dealerships Really Make? 80后男孩在美国开二手车行是怎么赚钱的？

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car

How to change the headlight bulb for Toyota Sienna 2012

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This is the replacement light bulb at Amazon: last purchased Sep 14, 2022 (replace one about 2 years ago; replace another one this evening). One driver flashed me yesterday evening. And this evening a neighbor told me one of the light for my minivan is out 🙂

Took me a while to find the other light bulb: I placed it along with other regular home use light bulbs.

To replace, the trick is to take out the old one, and put in the new one. There is a clip (snaps) from the electronic cable to the light bulb assembly. This is the YT video I watched this time (I may have watched another one last time around, but it was 2 years ago). Again the trick is to press, to unplug the old one, and the rest is the history 🙂

Related earlier post: DIY via Amazon and YouTube

Categories
advice and tips car finance

Switch to Ting wireless, mistake on car insurance

Reading Time: 2 minutesI decided to switch my wireless carrier again, from H2O wireless to Ting. I stayed with H2O for over a year, mostly satisfied, except recently I started using its per minute data, which seems burn my money quickly. I heard about Ting from friend before, but I forgot to do the referral. 🙁 Anyway I switched my wife’s T-mobile prepaid to Ting last week, and I just did mine this evening. The only thing Ting needs is the IMEI number of iPhone, the account number or the pin from the older carrier. In the case of t-mobile, it’s last 4 digits of phone number; the the case of the H2O, it’s the last 4 or SIM card number. Here is how to find it on iPhone: Settings => General => About => ICCID number. IMEI number can be found in similar fashion.

By doing this, essentially I combined my phone and my wife’s phone into one account. Besides that, my wife also gets some data usage, which she does not have previously.

Car accident and the rental coverage in car insurance
I used to have the rental coverage in my car insurance. But in recent review, I decided not to keep it for my 2012 Sienna to save some money (about $13.25 per 6 month), as I thought the extended warranty (service contract) will cover in the case of repair. A mistake on my side. Yesterday my wife got into an accident while driving sienna, and I need to bring it to car bodyshop, which also means I need a rental car. The cost is about $30 per day from Enterprise. So I think I will shell out about $200 (assume 7 days) while trying to save $13.25. 🙁

Also, looking back I really should not have bought the extended warranty (EW) for the used certified Sienna. For 3 years besides the routine maintenance, the main cost is to fix the squirrels chewing the cables, and replace four tires. Both were not covered by the EW. Obviously they don’t cover accident either 🙁 I would put my money in my own pocket next time.

PS: the minivan is already in shop. It’s a bit surprising that I mostly used the Geico app for appointment and status checking.

PS2: it appears Ting is using T-mobile network, the signal is not as good as AT&T which is used by H2O wireless. There is network degradation or no signal near my work place 🙁

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advice and tips car finance Fun

So after all my gas gift card was NOT stolen

Reading Time: 2 minutesI purchased a $100 Circle K gas gift card via eBay a few weeks ago, a few days ago I started to use it, and I found the initial balance is $75 instead of the $100 as advertised. See below, I spent $12.xx on the gas (imagine that a few years ago), and I saw $62.xx remaining.

IMG_1556

So I was worried the card is stolen, and I filed a claim on eBay and whined about it on wechat. This afternoon I decided to cash out the card via other gift card, and to my surprise, it has the correct value: after I bought $75 other gift card, it still has $12.xx remaining. I was wrong. The reason I worried it could be stolen is I saw people talked about stolen gas card (same brand), and it’s not too hard to crack a 16 digit code.

You may wonder why I just pay credit card for gas, and go through the trouble of buying gas gift card, and had to use it at a specific store, also keep track of balances. Well, there is some savings, to be short. Basically I can get some rebate via eBates (going to eBay), I also get some eBay bucks, plus sometimes I buy $100 eBay GC at $95. Last but not least, I paid $95 for $100 gas card. So the savings add up. I spent somewhere between $85 and $87.5 for a $100 gas card. On the other hand, nothing is truly free, with the savings comes with risk. I think from now on, I will stick to credit card: this quarter I can use either Chase Freedom/Discover Cash Bonus for 5% cash/points back, and in normal times I could use the Sam’s Club MasterCard, which also gives 5% cash back (in a check issued once a year).

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advice and tips car Fun

Commute

Reading Time: < 1 minuteCommute is a meaningful part of our work life, for me in my 15+ years work, I had commute most of time except in 2 cases: 1) I lived very close to work for 1 year; 2) I worked from home for 15 months. St. Louis rush hour traffic is not as bad as Los Angeles or Beijing, in my case my commute usually takes between 15, 20 min to 35 min (10 to 25 miles) one way. Also I am lucky in the sense I was against the traffic most the time.

toyota camry 2012 blue

Listen

Initially I listened to NPR, e.g., morning edition, all things considered when driving, it helped my English listening comprehension. Since last June I listened more podcast or music for the 30+ min drive.

Accident

I got into one accident at riverport drive about 10 years ago. Someone went to work in a hurry at around 5 pm, and she hit me at red light. To make things worse, she drove away after the accident. The second day I was able to find her car, and called the police. But it does not help my out of pocket expense (insurance deduction), as she does not have insurance.

Car pool

I did car pool in 2 cases, both not long. Once I did it with my coworker, we took turns drive, I park my car at his place when he drove. The thing is he is an early person, I had to get up early for the car pool thing. Another time I car pooled with my roommate. He worked at another company at earth city. Another downside of carpool is when I don’t drive, I don’t have the car to go out for lunch, had to pack lunch, go to cafeteria or go to Burger King which is in walking distance.

Snow

Any significant snowfall will make the commute miserable. I caught into this once partially due to my poor judgement. I took I road I don’t drive normally, thought it would be less crowded. Dumb mistake. It was less travelled and the crew did not get to it, huge snow pile. Near my home I made the same mistake again, I tried to drive uphill, but my car slipped. I got some help from the people nearby and was able to drove over the hill. After couple more dumb mistakes trying to make short cuts and almost got the car stuck in snow, eventually I was able to make it almost home, I only needed one left turn on the drive way. And my car got stuck in snow. My neighbors tried to push the car, we still cannot get out. So we had to left the car there. After that incident I think I had much more respect on snow, in terms of its effect on driving. As one of my coworker said, highway 70 is a giant parking lot. True. We as human beings are just powerless in the face of Mother Nature, be it snow or flood. This Jan we just had a major flood in the area.

Remote work

A few years ago I did work from home for a full time job for 15 months. The results is mixed, I think it has both plus and minus. Working from home or flexible work has becoming more popular these days for many white collar jobs. Many companies support this idea and some form of remote work days. But as the way most companies setup and human interaction go, I think we still need to go to office and work with coworkers on some of the days. Not to mention many jobs that require people go to office. In other cases, working from home crowd sometimes miss the chitchat at office, and we have the co-working place popping up. So I think commute will still play an important role in our daily work life. As time goes we will have more fuel efficient cars, or maybe even driverless cars. In the latter case we can watch YouTube while go to work. Let the computer (or robot) do the driving 🙂

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advice and tips car

Our car seats

Reading Time: 2 minutesNow we have 2 kids (one 7 month old baby, one almost 5), we also got quite a few car seats. First the infant car seats, we got a Graco snug and ride car seat for Serenity our old daughter. Something like this one, the seat has travelled to China and is still at her grandpa’s home. We are reusing the base with similar Graco car seat we got for younger daughter Sophia.

Graco_broad_street

Looking back not buying the travel system like we got for sophia is a mistake. Because travel system is quite handy.

graco_travel_system

For toddler car seats, we got 2: the cheaper evenflo and the more expensive britax.

everflo

britax-2010-boulevard-cs-convertible-car-seat-in-moonstone-9

We like both: the former is smaller and easy to move around, the latter is sturdy. All these seats are easy to fit in my cars: 2001 nissan altima, 2006 subaru forester, 2012 camry and sienna.

I will talk about boost seat in the future 🙂

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car

The rodents are back to my Sienna Minivan

Reading Time: 2 minutesI talked about this last year, in this post and that post. The bad news is, they are back. Couple weeks ago, when I went to dealership and install the new battery on Sienna, the service advisor mentioned there are some biting on the cables, and I said “yeah I know, last year I have been here 3 times to fix the squirrel biting cable problem”. Looking back they already visited this year (2015).

My wife noticed the problem on Thursday afternoon when she saw the check engine and “Trac Off” light are on. So I brought the minivan to dealership on Friday, and they were able to fix it on Saturday. Needless to say, I am annoyed again. Service advisor’s advice is to put moth ball in the hood. This was essentially what I did last year. Not fail-safe and there is this moth ball smell which could be harmful to human. I did a little more research and reading (1, 2, 3), but I have not seen a perfect solution. Another possibility is the laundry dryer sheet, or spicy sauce. I may try the dryer sheet tomorrow. Here I wanted to summarize some of the possible approaches to prevent the rodents coming back. I hope this might be helpful for people in similar situation like me, last year once I recall the service advisor told me a customer came back multiple times due to this problem, in other words I am not alone.

1) Use repellent such as spicy sauce, moth ball (this is unproven and has side effect according to some);

2) Power wash the engine compartment, to get rid of the smell from rodents’ previous visits. Note there is different opinions on this topic (see one discussion here). I also noticed Waterway Car Cash offers this service. I never did that before and don’t know how they do this.

3) Don’t park in the same spot when parking outside. Keep in mind do this both in winter and spring: the rodents get in in winter because it’s warmer inside, and they chew the cable for fun, in spring it’s mating season for squirrel, the make nest there.

4) Last but not least, trade in the problem car or minivan. I did give it some thought, and I think if the problem persists, and since I could not buy a townhouse/single family house with car garage, that’s one option I may pursue.