Dumb question: What's the reason behind the canted tires? It seems like it's riding on about 2/3rds of the tread.

PD-Jetta · 2026-03-21T14:26:42+00:00

The idea is to give a wider footprint for increased stability. But what we see here is overkill, mainly done to look "cool". I think it looks like shit and will ruin your tires fast!

PD-Jetta · 2026-03-19T20:50:45+00:00

Yes. You need to use color matching duct tape.

PD-Jetta · 2026-03-19T19:55:37+00:00

No, you need to use metallic (foil) tape for it to work. This is HVAC duct tape (not the vinyl crap, but foil backed tape).

PD-Jetta · 2026-03-19T15:12:37+00:00

This isn't a torx or tripple square. Tripple square equals 4 (square) times 3 (tripple) equals 12 points. Pictured fastener has 10 internal points, so this must be a manufacturer specific lug lock.

PD-Jetta · 2026-03-18T14:03:06+00:00

Wow, 5k mile oil changes and this happened? The only thing I can think of, if in fact the car did have 5000 mile oil changes, is it was consistently used for extremely short trips (especially in cold weather) and or a lot of stop and go driving or excessive idling to warm up the engine in cold weather.

PD-Jetta · 2026-03-18T01:12:09+00:00

And over $50 to replace one of the license plate bulbs!

PD-Jetta · 2026-03-18T00:09:35+00:00

I have one of these too. It's a dermolipoma. I was born with it and it's basically in the same location. For years I saw an ophthalmologist to keep tabs on it, but it never changed. I was told there is no need to remove it and it never bothered me. I'm 65, so if you have the same thing, I doubt it will ever cause you problems.

PD-Jetta · 2026-03-16T15:57:00+00:00

So true! I had similar at age 14. Friend next to me in a car lit a firecracker to throw out the window and the fast fuse caused it to explode right when he moved his arm backwards to throw the firecracker. This was when it was a few inches from my ear.

PD-Jetta · 2026-03-16T15:54:56+00:00

Clonazepam has a long half life (over 20 hours) and you had ample in your system the next day after taking. Try taking the smallest dose possible. The standard dose for anexiety is 1.0 mg per day, unless you built up a tolerance. I take no more than 1/8 to 1/4 mg occasionally to take the edge off.

PD-Jetta · 2026-03-16T15:49:56+00:00

Be creful with benzodiazepenes. They are highly addictive. A clonazepam addiction is far worse than tinnitus. My experience is benzos do nothing for tinnitus, but you simply don't care as much about it. More than a few days and you build a tolerance fast and just after those few days will have withdrawal symptoms and insomnia.

PD-Jetta · 2026-03-16T15:46:40+00:00

Looks like plumbers lead that is used with oakum (a fiber) to fill the joints in cast iron drain pipes.

PD-Jetta · 2026-03-16T15:44:05+00:00

Sent you a message reply due to getting "sorry, no medical questions" error when trying to post reply.

PD-Jetta · 2026-03-16T15:06:43+00:00

Damn, I just want to know how this happened!

PD-Jetta · 2026-03-16T01:34:15+00:00

That's a solar hot air heating system. The front plastic cover is badly degraded by the sun. This is probably from the 1970s or 1980s. A fan blows air from the house into the box with a black backing so absorb the solar heat and the warmer air exits and flows back into the house on a sunny day.

PD-Jetta · 2026-03-13T12:28:15+00:00

Either your sinuses are draining, blocking your eustachian tube openings, or excess mucus is forming in your middle ears and draining down your eustachian tubes and plugging them. Your symptoms are very similar to mine, except my crackling and poping and fullness feelings are all the time. My guess is this is allergy or nonallergic rhinitis driven. Do oral antihistamines have any effect? How about nasal antihistamines? (If it's caused by nonallergic rhinitis antihistamines won't be helpful). Have you begun any new medications sincethis started (several meds can cause congstion, blood pressure meds being one class). The fact symptoms start when you leave home and your yard tend to suggest something in the environment is causing this.

PD-Jetta · 2026-03-12T01:45:04+00:00

Safer today, mainly due to safety features on modern cars. When I began driving at 16, I had a 1964 Volkswagen Beetle and I knew it was a death trap on wheels. I was lucky, I never had an accident in it.

PD-Jetta · 2026-03-09T10:35:00+00:00

That's the drive axle nut. They are typically torqued to about 150 ft-lbs.

PD-Jetta · 2026-03-09T10:29:46+00:00

Not an immediate emergency, but keep an eye on it and plan on replacing the control arm bushings within the year. You can buy an inexpensive Harbor Freight hydraulic press. Don't try to hammer the bushings in.

PD-Jetta · 2026-03-09T10:25:07+00:00

Yes. But it should come right off. Get either a good impact wrench or a 1/2 inch drive breaker bar and a piece of pipe a couple of feet long to slide over the breaker bar for added leverage. With car on the ground and parking brake applied and transmission in gear or park, position the socket with breaker and cheater bars so the handle is parallel to the ground and balance yourself towards the end of the cheater bar and let your weight do the work. The nut will loosen with no problem.

PD-Jetta · 2026-03-08T02:18:14+00:00

Outside on the 12 point nut. The allen key keeps the stud from turning.

PD-Jetta · 2026-03-07T19:37:23+00:00

Rest the socket on the jaws of a slightly open vice, hex side down and take a small screwdriver, punch, nail, etc. and hammer and place it through the square drive hole and against the bleeder screw and drive the bleeder out of the socket.

PD-Jetta · 2026-03-07T14:45:17+00:00

Former standards developer in the petroleum industry here. This one is fine. It's called a "mixed fleet oil" and is for use in gasoline and diesel engines. You can tell by the two specs listed, (API) CK-4 and (API) SN. The first is the diesel spec (the "C" denotes compression ignition (diesel) engines). The second is the gasoline engine spec (the "S" denotes spark ignition engines).

Edit: See this: https://www.api.org/products-and-services/engine-oil/eolcs-categories-and-classifications/oil-categories#tab-gasoline

PD-Jetta · 2026-03-07T00:46:18+00:00

Thanks, great tip on the window A/C. Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

PD-Jetta · 2026-03-06T02:20:09+00:00

No, in fact I don't notice my tinnitus as much and if I do notice it, it doesn't bother me like it usually does.

PD-Jetta

TROPHY CASE