robert1408

Recent rains here have shown my old Michelin HX MXM4 to be not so good in the wet. Plus one of them wouldn't quite balance out. I found a local independent shop with modern equipment that's a Tire Rack installer. They mounted and road force balanced a set of Michelin Primacy MXM4 235/50VR18's today on my '07 LS with stock wheels. All four tires were US made in the 49th week of 2013. One of them took no weight to balance and the others took .75 to 1.25 oz. Roundness was fine and road force variation was negligible. These tires are ultra quiet and smooth running.

The original battery from April '07 had leaked out in July 2011 leaving a nice mess which was not very well cleaned up by the Toyota dealer who put in the replacement. Since I just got this car a few weeks ago, I decided last week to pull the battery and the tray it sits on. I'm glad I did! Two of the three bolts holding that tray were missing and the one holding it was so corroded I couldn't get a socket on it. I broke the tray out to check under it. There was a large, aluminum cased electrical module under there with some corrosion on it. I have no idea what it does, it's not the ecu.

I ordered a new tray for $116 (wowza!) net price. The shop pulled and cleaned that module then used a small grinder to remove all the corrosion after a thorough neutralizing flush. Then they primed and painted the area, drilled and tapped inserts for the bolt holes and put the new tray and the battery back in. Very neat and professional work. They charged me $160, a fair price. Nice not worrying about having a loose battery..