Well, I just thought I'd brag about not being as mechanically inept as I once believed...

I took a trip to Lubbock a little over a week ago, before which I performed my first "official" oil change, meaning I did it all by myself, as well as dishing out dough for another tire (DT doesn't cover "mechanical wear" in their warranty. Ain't that some ****?), rotate and balance, and then getting an alignment.

The whole way to and back, the squeaking was awful, so this past weekend I began Saturday by checking the torque on the strut mount nuts, and first off guess what happens? POP! You guessed it, broke the bolt in half. So, off to AutoZone to grab a new strut mount...

Sunday I decided to become an amateur mechanic and successfully disconnected the front driver'* strut and took it and the mount down to Firestone where the guy had a spring compressor and he did all the work for me at no charge (tipped him of course!), and back to the apartment we go... I was having quite a wonderful experience getting the lower portion of the strut to line up with the knuckle bolt holes, and had an epiphany... After loosening the endlinks to allow the control arm to move a little lower, I got it back into place and then reassembled everything and re-tightened the endlinks. I then proceeded to check the torque on the other strut mount. Let me advise not to use a 3/4" drive torque wrench to check 1/2" nuts. I am retarded. I meant to use the smaller, but wasn't paying attention.

Now that the strut mounts are tightened, the squeak is almost non-existent except for the old strut mount, but it is much nicer now that it'* tightened. Then on Monday I got the front-end realigned (no charge!) and now feel a great sense of accomplishment.

Still would've avoided the whole thing had I just been a little more attentive

Now back to modding...

congrats, sometimes the hardest part is grabbing the wrench.

same here, 6 months ago I had never worked on a car, and I didn't even know what a strut was (hee). now I've done a full tune-up (o2, pcv, wires, everything), changed my thermostat (with much drama...) and bunch of other stuff that'* really basic but it'* a huge deal for me. all just with a haynes and bonneville club

lol

Well, you tend to be able to learn a lot more from experience (your own and others) than you can from some mechanic spouting off some foreign auto language at you!

If it wasn't for BC, I'd still be freaking out at the mention of doing anything under the hood