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I got an oil change a few weeks ago at a Toyota dealer (the apartment doesn't allow auto maintenance so DIY is out for this situation) on the Camry. A few days later, I noticed that it was making a very sporadic knocking/rattling noise when stopped in gear (like when waiting at a light), but...

On a road trip a few weeks ago, I stopped at a gas station in a smallish town in northern Arkansas. The station wasn’t busy whatsoever (I was the only one getting fuel for the few minutes I was stopped) or very well-maintained, but was of a major brand associated with a big oil company, so I...

I moved into a different apartment a couple days ago and was looking for a little advice regarding its a/c. The apartment is 600ish square feet and in a '60s building so likely not too well insulated by any means. The windows are large, and seem to be two layers of single-pane construction, so...

I stopped for gas at the Love's in Pacific Junction, IA (south of Council Bluffs on I-29) last night and noticed that their base octane was 88 rather than 87, and there was a small E15 warning label on some pumps, but not the first one I pulled up to (in addition to an E10 label, but it was...

I got my first door ding on the Camry the other night - a decent-sized one that two PDR estimates I got today put at around $150 to fix, or $300 in total with the two other more minor blemishes on the car that were less bothersome but that I'd probably fix at the same time). I'd say I go to some...

I hit 48 states (plus DC) this summer, and I thought I'd do a bit of a writeup/stat breakdown for the BITOG crowd. We accomplished the bulk of this in essentially five loops of 3-4k miles each from the Midwest (most of which were 9-10 days each), not counting the states that we'd already been...

I picked up a pack of Armor All headlight restoration wipes on impulse to try and clear up the lights on my Camry. They were relatively foggy (though not too bad for a ten year old car), and I wanted to see if I could clean them up. I'm not opposed to picking up a new set of headlights if needed...

I found myself at a "Mega Saver - Tobacco and Phones for Less," an Omaha-area gas station that's known for its prepaid phones, cheap tobacco, and drive through liquor window, the other day when I noticed that the pumps were displaying Top Tier stickers. I was blown away because the chain is...

For my Easter trip home and back, I drove 556.9 miles on a tank of gas in the Camry, my farthest ever. I still had about 2 gallons in reserve (as I filled up five or so miles after 0 miles to E, and 30 or so after the fuel light came on, with 14.5 gallons, totaling 38.3 mpg), so I could've gone...

In contrast to all the awesome details that I've seen posted lately... I've been trying to get a car wash for quite some time, but couldn't sneak one in between the snows (would've been filthy by the time I made it back anyway), and now it's way too cold to get the salt off. This is what a few...

I was at a Holiday in Woodbury when I noticed that they had a new dispenser on the pump island selling bulk washer fluid. It looks like either a half-gallon or a gallon per dispense, $1.89 and $2.99, respectively, it's winterized to -20F, and it was substantially cheaper than the bottled blue...

I was playing around with our thermostat’s installer menu when I happened upon the cycle and hour counts for the lifetime of the system, which I thought were quite interesting. Although it's not car-related, it is mechanical and something I could see BITOG maybe being interested in. We have a...

I was at a local Toyota dealer getting an oil change and was looking through the showroom while I waited. I was approached by a salesman who asked what I was looking for. I mentioned that we might be in the market for a new Sienna at some point in the future. She said that a lease return (some...

My dad and I took a road trip through California and Nevada over Christmas break and noticed something odd in our travels. We stopped at a Chevron station in Tehachapi that had two "sides" with sets of pumps on each. A convenience store separated them. Nothing unusual with that setup, except...

A while back, I stopped for gas at a Conoco along I-29 in southern South Dakota. The 87 and 89 had 10% ethanol stickers, as expected. But the 91 had a sticker that said "Contains a trace amount of ethanol" rather than stating that it had no ethanol in it, as you might expect, particularly since...

I got this Camry last spring with 30,000 miles. I've put on 26,000 miles in the past year and few months, so I seem to drive it about 20,000 miles per year. It's been great for that time; I just wanted to share a review with you all. I found it at a Toyota dealer in central Minnesota about an...

About a year and a half ago, our 20-year-old Kenmore toploader called it quits. That thing was a champ, washing probably 15 loads a week. (Who knows how much water it used, though.) We replaced it with a Maytag HE toploader from Lowes. It was the large capacity model, approximately 4.3 cubic...

I'm looking at batteries for the Camry to replace the 9 year old JCI factory battery at some point. The car specs ~580 cca, I believe. (The old battery is testing at ~460 cca.) I have the 4-cylinder and use 0w20 synthetic oil, so starting demands shouldn't be crazy high, I wouldn't think (this...

Hello All, The Camry is fast-approaching 60k and I wanted to change out the tranny fluid (just because; it's specced as a lifetime fluid). The Camry has a sealed transmission with no dipstick. It shifts well; it sometimes has one strange shift when cold, but nothing other than that. Anyway, I...

The family (me along with my parents and sisters) is on a 13 day road trip from MN to the west and back across New Mexico and Texas. I was driving on I-20 west of Shreveport when the TPMS light popped on in the Sienna. I planned to pull over at the next exit to check things out. Within 10...