bulwnkl

Very cool! A diesel Baja would be perfect!! And I just happen to have a Baja laying around...

The Scoobytruck forum has a couple examples of lifted Bajas with larger tires, etc. That may also be a place you'd want to look.

I had very nearly this exact circumstance with my turbo Baja. Putting in an external ATF cooler and bypassing the factory ATF heat exchanger entire had zero impact on the problem. My translation/conclusion: ATF temps, at least on turbo Bajas, are not significant with respect to overall radiator load. What I had to do was change to nearly-straight water to get things under control. I added Water Wetter, and ~15% glycol to prevent the heater core freezing due to the A/C, but only the change to a lot more water in the cooling system helped. Good luck!

Exactly. Most users need the factory heat exchanger to help warm the ATF much more of the time than to cool it. Plumb the factory cooler in 'last.'

I did the cooler-line 'flush' on a Subie with known-neglected engine and A/T. Did it AFTER adding Auto-RX. Worked like a charm, and zero issues. Even 'fixed' a possible leak between A/T and front diff. Don't sweat a cooler-line 'flush.' it isn't a flush like the shops do. It's just letting the tranny itself pump all the old fluid out for you. I used basically a whole case (12 qts of most brands) for the flush, then refilled.

Check Scoobytruck.com for this. I thought for sure I'd seen one of the members there with a back-up cam.

I had AAA coverage for years when I was younger and lived in the PacNW. Haven't had it for some years now. It's a LOT more expensive in this part of the country. As luckytex says, the towing itself if very frequently a whole lot cheaper through your insurance company. I do, or did, really like the TripTiks, but those aren't nearly so 'free' or easy to get in this part of the country any more. Plus, bikes or RVs are a surcharge, at least here. So, I buy a membership in the American Motorcyclist Association. It offers largely the same benefits at about 1/3 the cost, for me. I think Starbuck is a really pretty area.

Forgot: '05 Baja turbo A/T, 145,000 miles. I've owned it since 70 or 80k miles and about 2007.

So, the A/C 'honks like a goose' in my Baja, too. It started immediately AFTER a shop did an evac & re-charge on the system. Since getting this trucklet, I've had to take it in to re-charge the A/C every couple years or so. It just slooowly loses cooling capacity. It's been leak-tested multiple times, and each time whatever shop did the work says there are no leaks, it's just low on refrigerant. Took it to PepBoys the other day, and they said the issue 'might' be the receiver-drier (I explained the above history) because they found no leaks and "it looks original and is probably old." They said $250 and I said no chance. Then they wouldn't do anything with it since I declined to follow their recommendation, so I left. A/C was totally ineffective for even mild cooling after that visit, so I just shut it off. Took it to Firestone yesterday and told them history, and refused all everything except evac & re-charge. They did, then said the compressor's bad and asked me to come outside to listen. There was a nasty squealing noise when the compressor clutch kicked in IF the mechanic revved the engine to ~4k rpm or above. Driving away from the place, the A/C was nice and cold once again, but will now occasionally make the goose-honking noise inside the car, but actually generally only at lower rpm. Should I go get a junkyard compressor and put it in, or do you think it's something else?

A strut tower brace is a rather clever way to extract cash from those of us who drive our cars on the road each day (or week, or month, or whatever) for absolutely nothing other than a psychological effect, and _maybepossiblyperhaps_ a slightly harsher ride.

I'm not talking about anything to do with the gauge. I'm talking about how the tank is filled by the pump, which is to do with a combination of the pump, the nozzle, and your vapor recovery system. You don't get _exactly_ the same degree of fill every time, even if you use the same nozzle from the same pump at the same station. Changing any of those variables essentially assures you a different fill level. Watch things over a few tanks before getting too excited one way or the other.

Looks to me like the 24mpg fill-up is the anomaly (if there could be one from just 4 tanks). By far the most likely explanation for that is that the tank didn't get filled quite as full on that tank, so mpg calculated higher. The next tank 'evened things out' and so mpg calculated lower.

A suggestion: Run an Auto-RX treatment rather than any more Seafoam. It safer (doesn't compromise the lubricating properties of the oil, and doesn't dislodge any 'chunks'), much more thorough, and I've never seen nor used anything better. I had similar or even better results with it in my '91 XT6 with low compression than what you're seeing with Seafoam. Only 'down' side is that it is slower/takes more miles than this kind of treatment. Good luck!

SOPUS (Shell Oil Products US) has different development tracks and formulations for Shell vs. Pennzoil. I do not say they avoid technology sharing, but the brands are allowed flexibility in driving their product(s) differently, or were as recently as a year or two ago. I seriously doubt that's changed. They're many times similar, but not the same. That they are similar may have as much or more to do with the fact that price drives formulations VERY hard in the Wal-Mart shelf-space oil segment.

Well getta loada dis: My Baja has a rubber line off the tranny, then a hard line forward, then another rubber line to the factory in-port. Same collection going back to the tranny. So that's 4 hoses and 8 clamps from FHI. Adding an aux cooler only adds 1 hose w/2 clamps. So, the additional failure points aren't even as high as problem-child claims on the Baja. :-p Anyway, OP's climate is very mild. Frankly, it would surprise me quite a bit if either cooling OR heating is needed very much where he is (I spent round-about 30 years just a little ways north of there).