GETTING THE CAR BACK IN ORDER

Several things have needed attention lately, some for quite a while.

An oil leak developed a while back, and I determined the leak was coming from my aftermarket adapter at the oem filter location - it's part of my oil filter relocation kit. Finally got around to dealing with that. To get the adapter off the block, I ended up having to disassemble virtually the whole kit, but it wasn't too bad of a job, especially since my friend who owns an auto service shop let me use one of his lifts: sweet! The o-ring in the adapter had flattened against the block. Considerately, Jim Thompson (maker of the kit) included an extra o-ring in the kit and I had saved the box. New o-ring in, and the engine is dry again.

That of course required draining the oil, so that's an oil change, at 60,310 miles.

The front brakes had begun whining, and the rear pad on the front right was about paper thin, so this morning I had my friend put new brakes on the front. First new brakes since new.

The car has had an issue with the idle for a few months now, anywhere from 1400 to 2500 (should be 850). Advised that the problem was likely a dirty solenoid which also causes the infamous bog, I cleaned that solenoid, and the problem went away immediately and completely! --for a few days. This week I cleaned in the throttle body, and it was better for a couple hours, but then came back once again. Then today the Check Engine light came on, so I was excited that maybe it would tell me the problem. Read the code, and it said, "Engine idle too high." Oh thank you, thank you so much. Still working on possibilities. I was hoping to have the idle in good order for a week from Saturday for....well, that will be another post. :)