For those that haven’t heard yet, my beloved ‘Rolla has crossed the 200k mark. I had been thinking that as soon as I passed the 200k mark the tires would fall off. To my surprise, nothing bad happened as I crossed over that 200k milestone.

However, apparently 200,110 miles, my ‘Rolla decided to have a little bit of a breakdown.

Any idea what this is?

If you guessed ‘Driver’s Side Door Handle’ you are RIGHT!

After having dinner with some friends, I had opened the door to the ‘Rolla and we were chatting in the parking lot, a bit of time had gone by, so I decided that I should close the door. After some more chatting, we decided to take off, and I went to open the door and heard a ‘SNAP’ and the door handle FLEW through the air, in my mind I think back and see it flying high through the air in slow motion. However, given that I was able to pick it up off the ground only about two feet from the ‘Rolla, clearly this is just the dramatic moment playing tricks on my mind.

So, ummm yeah. Hey Toyota, any chance there are some outstanding recalls on the 1994 Toyota Corolla? Specifically a recall on the driver side door handle?

I am hoping i can simply order a part from AutoZone, but I suspect I might have to hit up eBay or a local ‘Pick-a-part’. I can see that I am not necessarily looking forward to dismantling whatever parts of the driver’s side door that I need to, in order to replace the broken door handle.

Needless to say, I feel that the ‘Ghetto Sled’ has truly earned it’s name. As I may seriously have to start opening my door by leaning over the passenger seat, I really do not want to do that. So in addition to working on some code, I will be endeavoring to repair the ‘Rolla.

I mean, the car is a 1994, that is 16 years. If the car was only used to go to and from somewhere, once a day, that would mean the door handle was used at a minimum 11,680 times. Figure that it was used for two trips a day, this would mean, 23,360 times.

<pause while I look up some stuff on AutoZone.com>

Looky, Looky… $41.99 and I can have a fixed ‘Rolla, well $41.99 and a few hours for me to figure it out.

<pause while I searched for the part cheaper somewhere else>

I found it at O’Reilly AutoParts, $46.39 with delivery. The AutoZone one was going to be like $53. I didn’t pop for the 2 day delivery, as their delivery estimate showed that both options would arrive on Weds the 24th. So looks like, I am going to be trying to fix the ‘Rolla next Weds night or Thursday morning.

Well, it is late and need to get to bed. On a side note, I now have a similar setup at home as I do at the office, in terms of having a laptop stand for my mac book.

In other news, I am still doing Camp Gladiator, I will be definitely be doing it three times a week. Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. The workouts are intense and having my coworkers there is a good motivation to keep going. I haven’t really started weighing myself regularly, but I did last night for the first time in a few weeks and it looks like I lost about six pounds. Right now, I am more so interested in improving my stamina, as each workout is getting a little bit easier and easier.

Night.

Laterz

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On the way into work earlier this week the ‘Rolla rolled past 196,000 miles. The camera app on the iPhone took just a couple of seconds too long for me to snap a pic at 196,000 miles even. I am going to try to capture pics of the ‘Rolla hitting 197k, 198k, 199k and the covetted 200k!

laterz

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I was worried that the Corolla was going to need some major exhaust repair, which would make me question whether or not I should get it repaired, much like we did with the Achieva.

I currently have about 187k miles on the Corolla and I want it to make it to 200k, that is the line I have drawn in the sand as to when I want to look for a new car. I think 200k is a good run for the Corolla, not to say I will put it out to pasture, if it is in decent condition still by that point I am sure someone would buy it for a couple of thousand dollars.

Well, as I stated earlier today I had to drop the car off for some maintenance and there was obviously something wrong with the exhaust system as it had gotten quite loud recently. I had been really hoping something had just come loose, but the likelihood of that seemed to be pretty slim.

I got the call from the mechanic a little while ago and as it turns out the bolts that connected the ‘lower pipe’ or something to the exhaust manifold had come undone (disappeared is what the mechanic said). He got it all reconnected. He charged me like $43 bucks in labor for getting it all fixed up.

Needless to say I am very excited by the news that it is just merely something that needed to be reconnected and not totally replaced.

Now, I just need to get some new tires, it is definitely getting to be about that time. Oh yeah, I also need to call around to some junkyards and get a new seat-belt re-tractor thing, as my belt doesn’t retract properly right now. A new one is like $400 bucks or so, just for the part.

I am pretty confident at the moment that the Corolla will see 200k miles.

Back to the grind.

Laterz

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