Just got a '08 Touring

Long time unregistered lurker here...

Prices on Gen IIs finally came down to my affordable range due to their age and plummeting gas prices, and I got myself a white '08 Touring with 160,000 miles about a month ago. I have been getting 52-55MPG combined city/highway/interstate on average, with only minor hypermiling techniques. After having the car for a couple days, the check engine light came on, and my ScanGauge identified it as P1121, the three way coolant control valve. I'll fix that later, since it's failure can't harm the car anyway. My guess is that the seller (private party) was clearing the codes before each test drive, as my ScanGauge indicated "NOT READY" in the codes section when I first plugged it in after I got it home. Oh well. Cheap part anyway.

My first mod was the foam lower grill block, and I noticed a decrease in warm up time, and more heat retention when gliding. I think the grill block is useful even in the very mild Alabama winter. My second mod was LED lights. I've replaced my reverse lights, tail lights, all interior lights with LEDs so far. I plan to get LED turn signals and the LED compatible flasher relay, along with the orange front/side marker lights. Another thing I noted was the basically worthless fog lights. They only illuminate the road for about 15 feet in front of the car, and pull 50 watts each. I will eventually replace these with 1800 lumen LEDs that should be brighter, and burn more white, like the HIDs, while also consuming around a third or less power.

And finally, sometimes, only rarely, I have a strange braking issues. When coming to a stop from a smooth regenerative braking session, when the brakes switch from regen to friction, it feels like excessive pressure is being sent to the rear drums. My foot pressure on the pedal is consistent, but when the computer switches to friction brakes, it is as if I have suddenly stomped on the brake pedal. So much braking force is being sent to the rears that the car will squat down in the rear, and the drums will occasionally make a squealing sound. This only happens rarely. It has happened maybe 20 stops total in the month that I have owned the car. Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

 

Was planning on pulling the drums while I was doing the next oil change. Probably is time for new shoes anyway. Thanks!

 

Got them from SuperBrightLEDs. If you are interested in which ones specifically I purchased, I can give that info.