I had this strange, very very slow coolant leak since not long after I bought the car. So far I've put over a gallon of new coolant over the span of nearly a year, but couldn't track it down. I did notice that it seemed to get worse when it was cold. Eventually I saw a bit dripping from around the drainplug.
I just replaced the drainplug for the radiator, and so far so good, for now. It is warmer too, so that might have stopped it. If not, I'm probably getting a new radiator.
If you need the drainplug for the 03-08 radiator, it's
Doorman 61125, even though amazon claims it doesn't fit, it fits.
I also polished the headlights using a 3M headlight polishing cream. Mother swears by it, but although my headlights are more clear than before, when they're on at night I can still see the pits in the clear cover. So, sandpaper it is.
I also disconnected the hatch latch from the rear lock cylinder. Found that my hatch wasn't locking with the rest of the doors. Turns out the rear lock is so frozen that it was preventing the hatch from locking properly when I locked the car. I just disconnected the levers going to it. I don't know if I'll get a new lock, because that means a second key to keep track of.
Also, anyone else have trouble getting stock front sway bars off? I feel like I'm likely not alone here.
I hear this noise up front, and everything feels tight except sway bar ball joints have boots completely torn open. Might as well replace them. I tend to replace them with one side lifted up at a time, this keeps the sway bar and link tight as I'm loosening nuts. Then I either lift the other side of the car to release sway bar tension, or lift up the steering knuckle on that side.
Well, on one side, the ball joint stud on the bottom was rusted to the sway bar end and hammer blows didn't seem to loosen it. I left the nut slightly loose on that one and drove it a short distance, it broke loose pretty fast. I tightened the nut back up until I could remove it properly.
The other side was worse. I'm sure everyone's had this problem where the ball joint and shaft rotate with the nut, and that allen key/hex key hole on the end of the shaft is worthless because it's rusted, right? Aftermarket sway bars have flats on the ball joint to put a wrench on, the stock one was perfectly round.
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I ended up removing the entire rubber boot for it, using a small dremel tool to rough up and flatten the side of the ball joint shaft, and then put a vice grip wrench so tight on the shaft I almost had to use another wrench to close the vice grip. The nut finally came free, as shown in the second photo.
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