The first improvement made to the vehicle as soon as I got it, was to replace the aftermarket radio with the stock one. This gave me back the steering wheel control of the audio. The next addition was the roof rack. I sourced it from a local junkyard and painted it up with Caelb, a friend of mine. Installation was flawless and it has worked very well. The other immediate modification was to mount a trailer hitch. This was purchased online, and has served me well.
In mid 2020, the front passenger electronic lock wasn't working when using the key fob or the switch in the car. In pursuit of the problem, I took the door apart to assess the wiring harness. Everything looked fine, so I connected all the wires while it was apart to test the system.
It worked! I found out that there is a point where the wiring was tucked by the door handle that caused an internal wire break. The connection was restored by simply not tucking the wire. This fix has still worked to this day.
While driving on the interstate in early 2020, a driver speeding across lanes nearly caused a collision. Slamming on my brakes effectively ruined them. In the end, I learned that all four brake rotors were warped, one brake caliper locked up, and both outer tie rod ends ruined.
When first troubleshooting, Caleb and I replaced the brake disks to alleviate the steering wobble that resulted from that harsh braking. However, the problem persisted when driving on the interstate after this repair.
It wasn't until I took it to the local automotive shop that I learned that the damage was more severe. They had discovered that a rear brake caliper had locked up, and also discovered that the harsh braking destroyed the bushing in the outer tie rod ends.
I had missed these in my repairs, but we didn't think to test the system while it was on jack stands. This was a good learning experience of how to better test and troubleshoot even though I didn't end up resolving the whole issue myself.
I had never received an airbag dash light before, and thankfully I was able to easily fix it in late 2021.
After a quick OBD2 scan, I received an error code stating that the car couldn't read my front right impact sensor. After locating and removing the sensor, it looked fine. So, I decided to try a few simple things before trying to go through the arduous process of getting a replacement.
First, I checked the socket for issues and found none. Next, I cleaned the sensor exterior and its mounting point of corrosion and rust. After mounting the sensor, the dash light was gone! The sensor was simply unable to ground through the chassis due to particulate. Very thankful for a simple fix!
This is an ongoing repair for the car, perhaps. I received a check engine light, and a scan revealed that low catalytic converter efficiency was occurring. Although the code was persistant initially, the code was able to be erased later on and it hasn't come back. So it is fixed for now. Only time will tell fo how long it is fixed.
There are several potential casues for this code. The O2 sensor and tha actual catalytic converter are the main contributors. To begin troubleshooting, I would start with the O2 sensor. Perhaps the O2 sensor itself has given out or is dirty, or perhaps the wiring harness connecting the ECU to the sensor has a break in it. So the first action, is to read the live data of the sensor. If I can read the voltage, then the wiring harness is working. In that case, I will just purchase an O2 sensor and replace it myself. As this is a cheap and easy fix. If nothing done with the O2 sensor resolves the check engine light will I finally replace the catalytic convertor on my vehicle. Which is a costly repair, but needed to renew the inspection of the car.