Tuesday 3/9

Tuesday 3/9 6.30am

What a great group my Toyota MH on Yahoo is! On Sunday I posted "Jasper engine is a lemon" with my phone number and asked for help, and yestereve I got a call from two of them, telling me about all the posting that's been going on and discussion of my problem, etc.

One said she'd been in email discussion with Jasper Co. about the warranty, using her MH as an example, and they said she had a 3-yr warranty, so she thinks I should, too. Unfortunately, last July (2009) was the 3-yr period, so that's not going to be too much help. But what a nice effort. And it does let me know the guy I talked to at Jasper was mean and nasty and trying to shunt me away (which I already knew).

The other caller was "Sunrader" Bob. He's called that because that's the model of Toyota that he likes (I think he owns 3 or 4 of them). He restores them from the ground up. And there are a number of master Toyota mechanics on the group, so he called to give me their combined wisdom.

We had a long discussion about the details of my "rod knock." He thinks -- actually, he's pretty sure -- that I don't need to replace the engine, that all it needs is a bearing insert and a rod cap. Should be about an hour's job. He also said there's no way the rod is knocking stuff down into the engine.

Isn't that exciting news??!!

We talked about how to find someone who can do the job. He thinks I should go to the dealer here that handles the Toyota line and ask the service manager if there's a mechanic he knows who'd like some side work (and choose the oldest one, who'll probably have the most experience with old Toyotas). Or I could advertise on the local Craigslist for an experienced mechanic, which I'll do if the other option doesn't work out.

And checking the oil and topping it up may help the bearing and rod be less noisy for now. I'll do that tomorrow. Today I'm going to call the shop and tell them to stop looking for a new engine.

It's wonderful to think I can save my savings.