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Thanks for the url for PIAA. In my area it looks like the blades are sold in custom shops will take a look and look for Eagle One glass cleaner. So far I am pretty happy with the AmorAll wipes for the job they do and the convenience. Still have not seen how the job holds up in the rain.

Thanks for the comment. What are PIAA wipers? What do you use to clean around where the wipers don't reach.

Could not get windows clean using the usual household glass cleaners or the gas station squeegies. Always had the outline of where the windshield washers stopped scraping. Had been using cleaners and then using RainX. Loved the Rainx but not the remaining residue. Tried the Armorall window wipes and got them clean. Will have to wait for the next rain to see if RainX will be needed. Hope this is useful. I have no interest in this product or company.

This is a folow up on a problem I had with changing the manual transmission oil on the 2001 Toyota Corolla ce. As mentioned in the notes above the oil for the transmission was changed using jack stands to support the car. The car was still on jack stands when the transmission was refilled. I had eye-balled this and thought the transmission to be about parallel with the ground. I was wrong. The first day following the change the car was not driven on a highway. On the second day the transmission jumped out of fifth gear two times on an hour drive on a freeway. Took the car into my garage and left it on the floor and reopened the fill/check hole. This let about a half cup of transmission fluid overflow out of the transmission. Looks like it had been too full. It has been 5 days since doing this and it has not jumped out of gear since. It seems I over filled the transmission by tilting it back and raising the fill/check hole while it rested on jack stands. I don't understand the dynamics of how this led to it jumping out of gear. Perhaps someone can help. Bottom line of all this is that all four wheels should be on level ground when the transmission is refilled. Both the fill/check plug and the drain plug are reachable from the driver's side of the vehicle without getting under the car. The splash board can also be removed without jacking up the car.

I did consider using a synthetic and felt it was not needed. I have no data either way for deciding this. Spoke with a mechanic who told me manual transmissions in general have a lot less stress compared to automatics. He implied the regular gear oil was sufficient for this low level of pressure/stress. Thought the synthetic might be longer lasting. Would love to hear any other ideas on this. Especially would like to see some data saying one or the other is better.

I should have mentioned that the car is 2001 Corolla ce.

Thanks for the reply from Steve. Have used the side area designated by the owner's manual a few times now and despite the strip running along the edge, it seems to work well. It does not bend the strip. Have been putting the jack stands along the frame that runs from front to rea and is about 1 foot inside the jack points. Any other ideas would be appreciated.

Did manual transmission oil change today for first time. Got data from Haynes Repair Manual to use API GL-5 75-90 w gear oil. Found it at Advance Auto parts store in quart containers. Jacked up car and used jack stands. Slid under car and could not find either drain or fill/check plugs. Took off splash cover on left side to get better view of tranmission. It has about 6 small ( 10 mm) bolts and two screws. Screws come out of a plastic backing and the bolts from nuts held in place. Want to note which came from which hole. Used a six inch extension on the ratchet to remove some of these. Still could not find drain or fill/check plugs even after rechecking Haynes. Went to the Toyota Repain Manual and found the plugs pictured in a diagram in the transaxle section. The plugs are 24 mm hexagonals. The fill and check plug is at the front of the car and the drain is on left side. It did not seem to me that the plugs were separated vertically by much . Maybe 1.5 ". Got 24 mm socket from Sears for about $4.00. Undid the fill/check plug and had some run off of the fluid. Let me know it was full. Replugged this and removed the drain plug. The pain is in getting the gear oil back into the transmission. The plastic bottles are too big for the space available to be able to squirt it in directly. Got a funnel from Advance Auto with a calibrated cup on top and about 18" inches of tubing at the bottom. Could thread the tubing down from behind the radiator and stick the end into the fill/check hole. Supposed to fill until the fluid just begins to come out or about 2.7 quarts. Moved the drain pan under the fill hole and put the first two quarts in pretty quickly. Went slower in adding the last part letting the tubing clear before adding more to the funnel. When it began to overflow, pulled the tubing out and let it drip in the drain pan. Put in the plug and tightened. Did not see a torque rating for these plugs so just tightened them. The time delays were in getting the 24 mm socket- get the short socket -and in getting the funnel with the tubing. Had also tried a suction pump but it was faulty and would not suck. Funnel worked well and quickly and it was cheaper. Seemed silly to have to take off the splash board to get to the drain and fill/check plugs but I could not figure any other way. It is really a pretty quick job to undo the bolts and screws and to set the splash board aside. Given the right tools, this job can be done in less than 30 minutes including the jacking up of the car and the placing of the jack stands. I combined it with an oil change and I fooled around trying to figure out things for a long time. Hopefully I will remember what to do next time<G>. BTW on the Car Talk web site someone recommends letting your service people do this job. They said they can do a better job of flushing the transmission. Might be so but it was a fun job if you just want to play with your tools.

Any suggestions for where to put a hydraulic floor jack for front and/or rear jacking. Also looking for ideas of where to place jack stands. Haynes seems to recommend the frame for jack stands. I used the jack under the place indicated for the jack that came with the car. It seems to put a good bit of pressure on that strip of metal that inserts in the car jack. Thanks.

Found a place in California that sells repair manuals for Toyotas. Can reach then at 1-800-622-2033 This is an expensive book. I bought the repair manual for the Corolla 2001. The book cost $126.18 and with shipping and handling it was $143.23. It is about 2.3 times as thick as the Haynes for the same model. Haynes uses photos and the repair manual has computer derived drawings. I personally like the photos. The repair manual has 25 sections. The overall index is a tad puny IMHO. There is a whole section of using diagnostic codes which covers the codes in detail. You need a scan tool to down load the codes from the car. This section of the repain manual is 428 pages long! Have not gone through this or the Haynes completely, but if you have a little streak of grandiosity or just like completeness in preparation you might want the repain manual. Haynes has some things that I needed help with like how to change the taillight light bulbs. Could not find this in the repain manual.

Go to : http://www.automotivetouchup.com/toyota_paint_code.htm I used this and found my paint code on the driver's side door post. Found this by Googling at Toyota paint codes and following the clicks.

I recently had to do this two times. First time was a learning experience and second was much easier. First attempt took about 15 minutes. Second took about 5 minutes. Once you have the tools assembled it is very quick and easy. You will first need to get under the cloth covering in the trunk near the light. I used screw drivers and pliers to pop out the plastic plugs holding it in place. Will then need to use a 10 mm wrench to loosen the nut and remove it. Nut is on the side panel. On the model I was working on there were two phillips screws in the light fixture outside of the trunk toward the middle of the car. These have to be removed. Looking in the trunk you will see wires coming out of the light fixture. Follow those into the trunk and you will see a little knob on the plug pushed into a hole and holding the plug in place. I pushed this through the hole so there would be more play in the wire as the light fixture is pulled out. Once the plug knob is released, the nut is removed and the two phillips screws are removed, the light fixture will slide back and expose the bulb locations. This took a little playing to get it the first time. There are two metal rods on the side and a plastic sliding clip under the light fixture that all release with a little pressure. I jiggled it a bit before getting them to release. There are 4 bulbs so you will want to know what area to check before pulling the fixture. The bulbs are released by twisting the fixture to line up the hole with the fixture tab. Some of the bulbs have two bumps on the side and one is lower on the bulb than the other. Will want to slide the lower bump into the slot with the lower seat. It is pretty obvious with just a quick look. It is reassembled in the reverse steps. Slide the fixture in place. Put in the phillips screws. Attach the 10 mm nut. Put the plug bump back in its holding hole. Put the cloth covering in place and push the plastic plugs back in place. One caution is to not tighten the 10 mm nut too much. A little more than finger tight is about right. If too tight it will not release and will unscrew the bolt from its plastic holder. My bulb did not work the first time. Went back and examined the bulb socket and found a contact had been bent so it did not reach the bulb contact. Replaced the socket and it worked fine. Replacing the socket is another story.