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Yea, I feel all the Chinesium is the same. I have those DuraGo rotors on the rear axle of a LS430. They work, but meh. The local parts house had then and I don’t buy rotors from the FLAPS(OR/AZ). Centric was my go-to for Chinesium. Akebono rotors are supposedly the same as Bosch QuietCast and...

Yep, it’s my SOP after a brake job and whenever I take the pads off to “roughen” them up to cure a squeak by lapping the friction material with 100-150grit sandpaper on a piece of marble or granite. I do 10 stops from 20-30mph, with 30 seconds of cooling between stops. I do this in an empty...

I think GM put out a TSB saying if the rotors still fall within spec and there’s no excessive run-out, a pad slap is OK. Toyota and Honda also say rotors can be reused - they also want them machined if they are within spec using an on-car lathe. The Germans want new rotors every time, they use...

I’ll do a pad slap with OEM only if I had to. Besides money and labor rates - I live in a HCOL area and even Firestone is charging $250/hr. The problem with machining rotors is you don’t know if that lathe is maintained well - the arbor having as little play as possible, sharp tooling and the...

British cars also used Champion plugs. Some Jaguar mechanics preferred NGK or Bosch in them instead. Oh, Harley still uses Champion. You’re just paying The Motor Company the tax on them for the “official” ones with the HD shield.

I know Hyundai and Mopar does still. Yura, one of the OE plugs for HyunKia is a JV between Champion/Beru and HL Mando/Hyundai Mobis. BMW uses Beru along with Bosch and NGK. Beru falls under the Champion brand with Driv Automotive.

I have a set of new Toyota OE rotors on deck too. Else, I would have went Powerstop or DFC Geomet/Geospec coated or tried to find a high-carbon option. I tried DuraGo from the parts house on this van and they seemed lighter than the OE blanks.

@The Critic will give me flak for this, that is for sure. The old saying about curiosity and cats…

I’ll stick to OE Toyota for pad slaps and on hybrids - I feel too many machine shops ruin rotors. And hybrids really don’t have brake “feel”. I have a set of OE rotors at home. My main beef with the OE Toyota pads on this van is brake bite. NVH wise, they’re mostly fine but a machine shop...

the dice has been rolled. I’m going with Duralast Elite. Made in Mexico. My local AZ had Gold, made in India. These are within striking distance of OEM Toyota “warranty” pads(the TCMC “service/customer pay” pads are cheaper) - but Toyota makes you buy shims and the pad hardware separately...

Yea, the times I’ve installed Bosch pads(Perfect Stop), they seemed to work fine. I think they’re the same as QuietCast but in a different box.

Yea, I know, OEM Toyota or Akebono tends to work better on Toyotas. But, if I had to get brake pads tonight to go along with new rotors - I had a machine shop molest a set of Aisin rotors and there’s a shimmy in them upon braking, what would you gamble with? - Duralast Gold or BrakeBest Select...

I will say this - ACSO/CCCSO and BART Police will respond quick to any thing in the AC/BART systems. Shoplifters aren’t taking BART/AC Transit/SF Muni to do their crimes. They’re driving around on cold/hot plated cars, usually a rental with stolen plates. There’s more cameras on those trains and...

Man, with how bad Bay Bridge traffic gets on weekends and rush hour as well as BART-phobia many have if someone started this back up, Uber’s raison d’être of airport/event rides would evaporate. But now, with BART serving all but one of the major Bay Area airports(SJC), it’ll only be a VIP...

Calicraft x Lion Dance Cafe’s collaboration. An Asian-inspired IPA.

It works, if it has dexos1 certs. There’s much worse than Warren Highline oils out there. I prefer Euro C3/C6 or Mercedes/BMW/VW approved low-SAPS oils in turbo Subarus.

And the TCM is also monitoring shift times via watching the solenoid PWM values and shaft speeds to see if shifts are done within an expected time. If not, CEL and trans codes are logged. GM figured out how to monitor clutch life based on servo fill times. They were monitoring shift solenoid...

2007 Harley Dyna, about 25K on it, IIRC Out - RL 20W-50 V-Twin, Harley filter In - ditto. I’m probably going to recommend a Wix 51348/Fram 3614 or the PG equivalents for the next oil change. The owner also asked me about alternative oils. I recommended M1 20W-50.

I made vegan croissants, I used Myoko’s vegan butter and aquafaba for the wash. It worked out well. A vegan friend was cooking for a potluck this weekend, I kept her company while she tried her hand at vegan pate and marinated tofu for banh mis. They were good.

Second run of VRP. First run was with a Carquest Blue, I used the old Fram Ultra with VPBR.