Doing things, finding things, fixing things

So, if any of you have seen my introduction post, I bought this '01 IS300. It has problems... Lots of them. Mostly, because the previous owner took the cheapest route possible to do everything. Now, I'm not saying being cheap is bad, as one of my other builds was super cheap, and did fine. But, sometimes, you gotta do better in certain areas.

The car was lowered on low tier teins without rolling the fenders. Low and squishy suspension, and wheels on spacers, equal a dead rear tire when you have two boxes of kitty litter and a big bag of cat food in the trunk. (Honestly my fault, as I had the car for 3 weeks when that happened). So, I ordered some Fortune Auto 500s to replace the teins. I was hoping they'd be here by next week, but I don't think they'll be here by the time I go back offshore.

I also have to figure out a CEL. The previous owner told me he pulled the CEL out the dash (not the smartest thing to do for the sake of comfort), but he said it's because of the headers he put on. No big deal. So, I pull codes. There's also an EVAP code. Well, why's that? Time to do some digging.

The car would also lose electrical power if I make hard right turns, or go full lock right. Great! Electrical problems! My one true weakness! Lol. Thankfully, I think I found the hard right turn issue. When I bought the car, I thought it had one of those hidden, low mount battery ties downs. I found out that they do not, and my car has no battery tie down. And, rigged battery terminals that eat up a lot of space don't help either. Apparently, when I turn hard enough, the battery slides, the terminal hits the chassis, and shorts out the entire system. So, that's something else I have to buy.

The brakes as super squishy. Since the PO just kinda did things here and there, I believe this left a lot overlooked. The car has 240k on the clock, and what looks like possibly 100k rotors and some well worn pads. No big deal for me, as whenever I buy a project, I do the brakes first (if it's drivable. Lol). Got new pads and rotors (Detroit Axle kit) and stop tech stainless lines.

So far, I've bought the brakes, a new DNA exhaust (cheap, because it'll be replaced in a year or two, if everything goes to plan), HPF intake (to see if that will help with the evap codes) the brakes, new O2 sensors, and a front strut tower bar. Had to return the bar, as they sent me one for a Veloster.

Anyway, today is the day I start working on it. I did some preliminary work on it Sunday, and saw the car had lost all it's power steering fluid, coolant, and barely had any oil in it.

My 86 Cressida wasn't even this bad when I bought it in 08.

So, our story begins. This week is just to get the car reliable enough to make a few trips to Louisiana. Kinda sketchy to do this much to have it's first real test be a 12 hour drive. But, it's what I gotta do.

Here's pictures of what I bought so far.