Old yaris 218k miles, 30k+ road trip?

[seatech30]

I went after my front brake maintenance today.
Found the grease inside the sliding pins in nasty goop stage, cleaned everything up and re-greased with hi-temp brake grease.
The bushings on the bottom slide pins had expanded too much to slide back into place, so I had to replace them.
Replaced the boot bushings because they came in a kit from O'reily's.
Found one of my front shock insulators was all torn up. and my bleeder caps were thoroughly cracks, so I'll be ordering those parts and replacing them.

One of the bottom slide pins looked very corroded while the rest just seem to have some wear patches, I think I'll replace the corroded looking one.

zoidberg444, I have the WP and spark plug inspection on my list for tomorrow, today dragged out more than expected because I had to wait on parts, and it'd been a while since I had done the slide pins, so was feeling overwhelmed with the decisions of how much grease to use. lol

I have a Battery charger BESTEK 600A Peak 10000mA, it was buried in my "have:" list in OP. I have spare bulbs for head and tail lights already too.

Looks like I should definitely get a fuel container then, maybe a 2 gallon (~7.6L), should get me max 80 miles (129km). Good idea on the zip ties, although, I feel like I will be carrying too much stuff now, haha, but it's a long trip. Getting paranoid, but I know that doing such a huge amount of driving in such a short amount of time will statistically increase my chances of encountering hazards.

I'm actually planning to document quite a bit of the trip. I just got an essential phone with a 360 camera attachment, so I plan to do some pictures and video in that format. I also want to do some time lapsing of my dash cam recordings. May even start a youtube channel, but not too sure on that just yet. We'll see how it flows once, I start.


Dodge Aries K, Rockford, IL isn't much of a detour from my current route through Illinois. I'll send you a message when I get closer. I should be there about 37 days after I start my trip according to my route estimate.


Brosin, I'll actually be visiting a friend in New Jersey, haven't checked where he is just yet, but I'll definitely let you know if you're nearby. HAha, guess they had not seen the mythbusters video where they tried to drive a fast low car under the legs of a deer/moose?

Thanks again for all the support and great ideas!

EDIT: Forgot to mention I'm using furkot to map out my road trip. It's actually pretty neat and you can set parameters for max distance driven per day or max hours.

[zoidberg444]

Originally Posted by seatech30

zoidberg444, I have the WP and spark plug inspection on my list for tomorrow, today dragged out more than expected because I had to wait on parts, and it'd been a while since I had done the slide pins, so was feeling overwhelmed with the decisions of how much grease to use. lol

I have a Battery charger BESTEK 600A Peak 10000mA, it was buried in my "have:" list in OP. I have spare bulbs for head and tail lights already too.

Looks like I should definitely get a fuel container then, maybe a 2 gallon (~7.6L), should get me max 80 miles (129km). Good idea on the zip ties, although, I feel like I will be carrying too much stuff now, haha, but it's a long trip. Getting paranoid, but I know that doing such a huge amount of driving in such a short amount of time will statistically increase my chances of encountering hazards.

I'm actually planning to document quite a bit of the trip. I just got an essential phone with a 360 camera attachment, so I plan to do some pictures and video in that format. I also want to do some time lapsing of my dash cam recordings. May even start a youtube channel, but not too sure on that just yet. We'll see how it flows once, I start.

Brake service is a good idea. How old is your brake fluid? I flushed mine before i went to Norway and i'm glad i did because the mountainous terrain really gave my brakes a workout. I'm sure your brakes will do some hard work on your trip criss-crossing mountain ranges and the like.

Yeah. Normally when i go on a trip and I'm camping my car gets a bit... full.



The Yaris takes it like a champ though!

[seatech30]

zoidberg444, haha, that's fully packed! How do you like the electric cooler? That's another item on my list, I've been debating. However, I think I may go with the $300 coolers since I'm not going to be driving 24/7 nor may be around outlets often enough.


I did my brake fluid change about 3 years ago at 160k miles, and had never done it before that, so I think it will be fine. However, I think I do need to top it up. I noticed it had moved down a bit. I was given a verbal warning on the mountains because I was going 5MPH over the limit, and "braking too much." I was in second gear, which tops out around 30MPH, limit was 25MPH. So I kept lightly tapping the brakes to try and stay below. Didn't care to argue since it was just a warning. If I had gone into 1st I'd be stuck at 15MPH -__-

[zoidberg444]

Originally Posted by seatech30

zoidberg444, haha, that's fully packed! How do you like the electric cooler? That's another item on my list, I've been debating. However, I think I may go with the $300 coolers since I'm not going to be driving 24/7 nor may be around outlets often enough.


I did my brake fluid change about 3 years ago at 160k miles, and had never done it before that, so I think it will be fine. However, I think I do need to top it up. I noticed it had moved down a bit. I was given a verbal warning on the mountains because I was going 5MPH over the limit, and "braking too much." I was in second gear, which tops out around 30MPH, limit was 25MPH. So I kept lightly tapping the brakes to try and stay below. Didn't care to argue since it was just a warning. If I had gone into 1st I'd be stuck at 15MPH -__-

I'm surprised how good it was actually. It was a cheaper one from a camping place that i got before going to Cornwall last year. It can run on 12V and 240V mains so you can leave it running in the tent when camping. Although on hot days it struggles so i i would probably spend more money if i was getting one for a really long trip and running only on the cars 12V.

I read the recommended service interval for brake fluid is 2 years. There is a little gadget you can get that checks the moisture content in the fluid and tells you if its time i change it. I did mine in 2016. I'll probably do it again this year for my winter service.

[Dodge Aries K]

Originally Posted by seatech30

Dodge Aries K, Rockford, IL isn't much of a detour from my current route through Illinois. I'll send you a message when I get closer. I should be there about 37 days after I start my trip according to my route estimate.

Awesome, sounds good. You can see all the cool abandoned buildings here hahaha.