I thought that I'd pass on a couple of "learnings" I had this summer that may help some members out there.

Spare tires: If you have an old spare tire, be sure to check its health. Look for cracks and make sure that it will hold pressure. I bought a Supra spare tire a long time ago (before 2010) because it would fit the SC430 and it was cheap (for about $40) from a guy who no longer owned his Supra and wanted to get rid of it. I had never had the need to use it until recently when I had a flat tire. I put it on and drove back home (only a mile or so) without any issue. A couple of weeks later, I had another flat tire and was at DTC and they were considering putting the spare on so I could drive home while they waited on the new tire to come in the next day. Unfortunately, this is what my spare tire looked like.

This was what my spare tire looked like in my trunk.

It looked even worse the next day! So be sure to check out your old spares. This tire was probably close to 25 years old, so while I got my money's worth out of it, don't bet your health on an old tire. They have a limited lifetime.

(I'll relate the spare tire purchase story in a later post.)

Spark plug replacement:
I finally got around to replacing my spark plugs for the first time recently. (Yeah, I know, I should have done it a long time ago but even at 19 years old and 155,000 miles, there was no missing or any indication that there was a problem. Even once I got them out, the plugs looked pretty good.)
Any way, the driver's side is pretty easy and straight forward but the passenger side is a whole other story. The front two passenger side plugs require removing that box connected to the air intact. This part is reasonably easy, just takes a little time and patience. The third one is fairly easy. The one closest to the firewall is where it gets challenging.

When trying to remove the coil tube, the battery interferes.
Typically folks say to remove the battery box. I didn't want to do this because I didn't want to have to reprogram everything that is lost when disconnecting the battery. So after some study and watching a video or two, I found the way to do this. The way around the interference is to remove the battery brace so that the battery tray is loose. I had to pull the battery tray back and up a little and was able to pull the coil tube (with some effort).
Hint #2: You'll need a long socket extension to reach the plugs but in cases like the one next to the battery, you'll not be able to insert the long extension because the battery is in the way. The solution is to use two short extensions one at a time. Insert the first one and then connect the 2nd one to the first.
Hint #3: You'll definitely appreciate having wobble extensions when you do the passenger side.

Hope that helps.

 

This is the video that I watched where I picked up pointers on replacing the spark plugs. This guy got the coil tube out without removing the battery. Start watching about at minute 8 for the plug by the battery. The frame/brace for the battery tray is in the way of removing the coil tube. He already has the brace either removed or loose as you can see him moving the tray to pull the coil out.


Regarding the spare tire, I was looking for another spare tire/wheel combination to replace my current bad spare tire thinking that it would be fairly cheap to find an old Camry spare to replace it with, expecting to spend less than $50 for it. DashingDaryl sent me an auction for a spare from a GM that had the right size tire (145/70R17). I was concerned about the wheel it came with thinking that it wouldn't fit over our brakes. Then he pointed out that I could get that wheel/tire and just have the tire shop move the good tire over to my wheel. Dooh! It was a great idea. I was headed in that direction until I actually ran across a new tire for sale (on ebay) for $41 total (shipping and tax included). I bought that one and had DTC install it. (The next week, the same seller was selling the same tire for over $100.)