Automotive

Fastest Way to Remove Water Spots from Glass

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I previously made a video showing how to remove water spots from glass by polishing. No doubt, this approach works and is almost surefire but depending on the condition of the water spots, how baked on they are, and how much glass you have to polish, the entire process can take hours to complete.

Well, I’ve been experimenting and have found some products that are extremely effective in removing water spots from glass. These products are the offerings from Bar Keeper’s Friend.

This company makes many different variations of this product but I personally only have experience with MORE and Soft Cleanser. MORE is a more watery substance that sprays out as a foam whereas Soft Cleaner, although still a liquid, is just thicker. In terms of consistency, the closest thing that I can compare Soft Cleanser to is ranch dressing.

For a demonstration of the products in use, watch the video above.

To use these products, all we do is apply the product onto the glass or onto an applicator and just scrub them in. Now, it is extremely important that you DO NOT let this stuff stay on the glass for too long. The directions specifically say no more than a minute but it really depends on the atmospheric conditions. You just don’t want this stuff to dry on any surfaces. Bar Keeper’s Friend is essentially an acid and it removes the water spots by eating away the minerals that cause the water spots. However, if left on for too long, Bar Keeper’s Friend can etch the glass and you’re going to be worse off than just having water spots. But don’t worry, this sounds a lot scarier than it is. All you have to do is use something to neutralize the product. This can be as simple as just spraying the surface down with water, wash it with some soap and water, or use a waterless wash. In short, just use some sort of liquid.

In saying that though, keep in mind how water spots occur. In general, there are minerals in water. If you don’t properly dry a surface after getting it wet, as the water air dries, the water may disappear but the minerals are left behind and those minerals are the cause of water spots. So, if you get rid of the water spots with Bar Keeper’s Friend but you rinse with tap water and don’t properly dry, you’re just going to introduce new water spots and this is all going to be a futile effort. If you’re doing this, make sure to properly towel dry or use a car dryer like I’m doing in the video above.

If you’re interested in any of the products discussed in this post, look below where I’ve linked everything.

And that’s pretty much it. Apply Bar Keeper’s Friend to the glass, rub it in for one minute, rinse off and dry. The process can’t be easier.

From my experience, most water spots can be eliminated in just one application. Some of the most stubborn water spots will leave traces of their edges behind but that’s no problem. I can just do another application and that’s what I would suggest for you guys to do. If you’re worried about Bar Keeper’s Friend possibly doing some damage, play it safe and leave it on for noticeably less than a minute. Say, 30 seconds. So you may have to do a few more applications but this is definitely one of those better safe than sorry situations. And at the end of the day, more applications of this process is likely still going to save you a lot more time than some of the alternatives so no big deal.

Again, I only have experience with MORE and Soft Cleanser. Both of which you can see me use in the video above. However from my experience, one clearly outperforms the other. If you are purely looking to remove water spots from glass and not some of the other materials that these products are recommended for, Soft Cleanser is the way to go. Between the two products, there are some minor differences in the ingredients and that seems to make Soft Cleanser much more effective at removing water spots. Don’t get me wrong, MORE definitely works but where Soft Cleanser only requires one application, it may take MORE two or threes applications. Keep that in mind.

Either way, using Bar Keeper’s Friend is just so much faster and more effective than any other water spot removal methods that I’ve tried. But because there is some chance that this product can cause damage to your car, I can’t say outright for you to follow my lead. Do your own research and decide if you want to give these products a try. I’ll just finish off by saying this. I personally have used this product to clean the glass of my Supra. This is my baby so if I’m willing to use Bar Keeper’s Friend on it, then that shows the confidence and trust that I have for these products. I will personally continue to use them when water spots develop on the glass of my cars and I probably will never try anything else again. Bar Keeper’s Friend is just that good to me.

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Toyota Supra Mishimoto Oil Catch Can First Drain

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Some time ago I installed the Mishimoto oil catch can in my A90 Supra. With this unit, Mishimoto recommends checking the contents of the catch can every 1,000 miles after installation until a baseline is established. It’s time for me to do my first drain and I’m going to share with you my experiences to see if this thing is doing anything.

For the check, I had the Supra jacked up because I was actually already doing an oil. Mishimoto says that you don’t have to have the car jacked up but I’ve tried reaching under to get to the catch can’s drain plug and it’s awkward, to say the least. You very likely can do it but things definitely get more complicated if you lowered your car. If you’d like to learn how to properly jack the MKV Supras up, I’ve made a video on the topic here: https://youtu.be/YpMxdVHzJ9k

The Mishimoto oil catch can’s drain plus is directly behind the passenger side front wheel. This is why I said that it would be awkward to get to this thing without lifting the car. You’d have to reach around the tire and do the service at an awkward angle and almost blind. In my opinion, the drain plug situation should’ve been handled better considering it’s something that we have to deal with relatively often.

To drain the catch can, we just use some sort of tool with a 3/4” opening to loosen the drain plug. It’s pretty much the same idea as dumping the oil for an oil change. Lefty loosey, righty tighty. Pretty self-explanatory.

When I checked, I got absolutely nothing. Not a single drop of oil. Not even a trace when I stuck my finger into the opening.

At this point, I thought maybe the car was just producing so little blow-by that as I angled the car up on jack stands, the blow-by wasn’t able to drop down the drain tube which is connected to the center bottom of the oil catch can. So to verify this, I had to drop the car and check the can on flat ground.

Having to do this verified for me that this process sucks without lifting the car. Even at stock height, my Supra is low enough for me to not be able to fit any of my combination wrenches under the car and be able to turn the drain plug. I had to find a short crescent to get the drain plug off and even then it took me a while because my arm is just short enough for this process to really be a pain. Again, I’m at stock height but if your Supra is lowered or slammed, good luck doing this without lifting the car.

I eventually got the drain plug off, I had my catch cup under there to see how much oil was collected, and guess what? Not a single drop, AGAIN!

So, I don’t really know what to say. A thousand miles and not a drop of oil collected is kind of concerning. I realize that there are a few different things like temperature and how the car is driven that can contribute to the amount of blow-by but I would think that after a few months and driving through different atmospheric conditions, I would get something. I know that, for sure, when I was installing the catch can, when installing my intake, and just having to take the various pipes and hoses apart, there was a noticeable amount of oil in these various components. So for none of that to get in the catch can, is just weird to me.

As of right now, I really don’t know what to think about this Mishimoto oil catch can. I mean for around $300, things are a bit disappointing right now. Obviously, I’m not going to uninstall it because that entire process is kind of a pain and it’s already in there so why would I take it out? All I can really do is wait it out, drive the car more, and just see what happens. I’m probably going to stretch the check-in intervals out and not check every thousand miles because that’s clearly not needed. I’m likely just going to check at every oil change interval as I planned in the first place and that likely will be just fine considering what I’ve seen here.

For the Supra owners that watch my videos and have this catch can installed, how’s yours holding up? Are you seeing any oil being collected? Let me know in the comments because I’m really interested to know if my Supra is just the most efficient one or what.

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Toyota Supra ZL1 Addons Rock Guards Update

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In May of 2020, I made a video showcasing the ZL1 Addons Rock Guards for the Toyota Supra. Well, the other day I was doing some maintenance on the Supra and noticed that all of the hardware provided by ZL1 Addons to install the Rocks Guards showed signs of rust. This obviously isn’t good so I reached out and was told that there was a new set of hardware for the current product. To me, this means that the rusting issue probably isn’t an isolated incident in my case and is likely a known thing. In any case, if you purchased this item around the same time as I did, I would highly suggest that you go out and check the hardware that came with the Rock Guards as there may be some rust. If there is, contact ZL1 Addons to get a set of the new hardware. I got the replacement pretty quick and it was just a matter of changing things out.

Now, if you watched my original video on the Rock Guards, you’d know that I did the install without removing any of the wheels. There was enough space up front for conventional tools but the rear was a bit tight. I got the job done but the process wasn’t exactly streamlined as I didn’t have a tool small enough to fit in the rear space. I ended up just using a Phillips bit and a pair of locking pliers. This worked but it definitely added some time to the install. Since then, I picked up this MicroDriver toolset from Gearwrench and I’m telling you, this is the tool to get for this install if you don’t want to remove the wheels. The MicroDriver allows you to essentially get into any space where you can fit a 1/4” bit. This is great for this install and has actually helped on a few other projects. This toolset is a definite recommend for any DIYer.

After about 11 months, there isn’t a significant amount of rust on the old hardware and it’s really only forming around the two ends with the screw head getting the worst of it. But I should mention that since installation, this car has only been driven in the rain a handful of times so this may be a less extreme example of the rust situation. Still, this isn’t anything that we’d want. If you are seeing any rust developing, definitely work to get the hardware changed out ASAP before it spreads to the body.

For me, it was only a matter of contacting ZL1 Addons to get a free set of new hardware. The one downside is that the new hardware is silver instead of black like the original set. The new hardware definitely sticks out a bit and that’s kind of a bummer but if the rusting issue goes away then I’d be happy. Of course, I can just paint over the heads with some touch up paint and call it a day.

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Valvomax Installed on the Toyota GR Supra MKV

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I recently made a video talking about the Valvomax oil drain valve and a viewer left a comment asking if the Valvomax would work on the MKV Toyota Supras.

Well, I actually planned on doing an oil change on my Supra and knew that I was going to attempt an install of the Valvomax. In this post, I want to share with you guys some of the things that I noticed during the process.

First things first, for those who have no idea what I’m talking about and have no idea what the Valvomax is, I highly advise you to watch the dedicated video that I made on the topic. That’ll get you up to speed for this post. For those who aren’t going to do that, a quick summary would be that the Valvomax is a valve that lets you control the stream of oil that comes out during an oil change. By the way, this is definitely something that I can recommend after doing an oil change on the Supra because she is a splatterer. The way the oil drains on this car is just a bit wild and a bit messy. Being able to control the stream is just a bonus.

Particular to the MKV Supra, you will need the Valvomax in size M12-1.50. I will have the exact item linked in the below for those who are interested.

As far as installing this part, there are a few minor challenges that we have to address in order to get the job done.

The first challenge is the amount of space that we have to work with. For those unfamiliar with the MKV Supras, the entire bottom is pretty much covered by plates and shrouds. Even the oil drain plug has a plastic cover over it. This cover makes it difficult to install the Valvomax because the Valvomax is significantly bigger than the stock oil drain plug nut. The Valvomax adds about an inch and even a bit more when we have the cap attached.

On my initial install, I thought that there would be no way that the Valvomax with cap would fit under the cover so I just took the cap off. This worked perfectly as the drain plug cover was able to be reinstalled, no problem. I can actually see that there was still a small gap between the two surfaces.

So, the next question is whether or not the cap would also fit under there. Well, the plain answer is yes. The Valvomax will fit with the cap installed under the drain plug cover. Things are a bit tight and you have to push the cover in a bit but everything does fit. I ultimately opted to keep the cap installed because it keeps dirt and debris from getting in the valve and possibly cause some issues.

Ok, now that we know that the Valvomax will fit, we’ll have to face the challenge of actually getting it installed. With my other vehicles, I just used a 24mm combination wrench to tighten the Valvomax down with no issues. Again, there really is no working space in this region of the Supra so the combo wrench was out of the question. If you want, you can take all the plates under here off, which can possibly make the install easier but I’m going to tell you flat out that that’s a waste of time. After some trial and error, I found that a 1” socket actually fits around the threads of the Valvomax and lets you get to the flat portions of the lug. There’s not too much space because there’s a raised lip around the drain opening but there was enough space for my socket to bite and properly tighten the Valvomax into place.

Now as far as torque specs, Toyota lists that the OEM drain plug should to be torqued to 18 ft-lbs but Valvomax has no specifications for their product. Their official website just says to snug it down so take that as you will.

To sum things up, yes the Valvomax can be installed on the A90 Supras relatively easily if you know what you’re doing. Hopefully, this post has given you all the information that you need to get the install done.

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ValvoMax Oil Drain Valve

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If you change your own oil, then I have an add-on that you’re going to love. This is the ValvoMax.

This post is going to be for those who are familiar with the oil change process. I’m not going to show you how to change a vehicle’s oil but will solely focus on the ValvoMax and how it can assist in the process.

To make it plain and simple, the ValvoMax is an oil drain valve. When changing the oil and after you’ve removed the oil drain plug to let the oil drain, instead of reinstalling the oil drain plug, you install the ValvoMax in its place.

So, what is the point of this?

Well, let’s take a look at the ValvoMax itself. This product consists of two main parts: the quick twist valve and the drain tube assembly. The quick twist valve is the part that takes the place of the oil drain plug and stays installed on the vehicle. The quick twist valve consists of the valve itself and a cap to protect the valve. The cap even has its own rubber seal and is held in place by the cap tether. When it comes time to do an oil change, we take the drain tube and screw it on to the quick twist valve. This opens the valve and oil begins to flow from the engine, through the drain tube, and into an oil collector.

Now if you’ve changed your own oil, then you’ve probably already figured out why something like this so great. If not, let me break with down for you. This product almost completely removes the possibility of making a mess. With this system, the oil drains in a much more controllable fashion. No more loosening the oil drain plug then quickly pulling it out as you try to dodge the stream of oncoming oil. No more worrying if you’ve positioned the oil catch pan in the right place. With the ValvoMax, the oil flows when you want it to and it can be controlled and repositioned.

If you watch the video above, you’ll notice that the larger oil pan that I was using to hold my used oil was actually half full. Midway through the oil drain, the pan started to overflow. Because I had the Valvomax installed, I was able to stop the oil drain and position a new oil pan. Had this had happened without the Valvomax, this oil change would’ve been a complete disaster for my driveway.

This is a pretty great system but I would say that there are some potential drawbacks. First, it’s pretty much guaranteed that it’ll take longer to drain the oil with the ValvoMax than if it were to just flow normally. The manufacturer advertises that oil will drain in 10 minutes or less and I assume that just depends on the amount of oil that needs to be drained. In any case, because the ValvoMax channels the oil into a smaller stream, it’ll flow slower and take more time to drain. I personally don’t mind this but it just depends on your needs. For reference, it took about 5 minutes to drain the 4-ish quarts of oil from the Corolla in the video.

Another potential drawback is the size of the ValvoMax. With the cap on, this thing sticks about an inch from the oil pan. The drain tube assembly also takes a bit of space when installed on the quick twist valve. Depending on your vehicle’s setup, you may not be able to fit the quick twist valve or it with the drain tube. This is not likely to be a problem for many people but a select few.

Lastly, the price of the Valvomax is also a pretty big turn-off. At $35 to $40, the ValvoMax is pretty pricey. If it were half that, this would almost be a no-brainer. But at the end of the day, only you can determine if this product is worth it for yourself. For me, because I keep my vehicles for a long time and do my own maintenance, it’s worth it in the long run.

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