Howto: Convert Drum Brakes to Disc on Grand Am

The 2005 Pontiac Grand am comes with disc brakes in the front and drum in the rear.  In 1902 the brake drum was modern technology, but around 1960-1970 they started to be replaced by disc brakes on new cars.  For quite some time many cars were made with disc in the front and drum in the rear, due to the fact that rear brakes aren't under as much stress as front brakes, and drums are cheaper than disc.

Before - No street cred at all with rusty drums behind those shiny new wheels.

Howto: Clean up corroded battery terminals

Every time I open the hood they're there, mocking me - my corroded battery terminals.  I've cleaned off the corrosion before only to have it come right back.  Plus my brother also points it out every time as well, and reminds me that the Grand Am never has that problem.  So last time we were at the auto parts store I noticed a packet of "Battery No Corrode Gel", and decided it was time to fix this problem for good. This gel is supposed to insulate the terminals from corrosion, and it "sets" after drying so it doesn't remain goopy like other substances people use for the same purpose (such as petroleum jelly).

If your battery terminals look like a snow man, you need to read this article!

Howto: Replacing Front Engine Mount on Acura TL

Looking around online it seems that bad engine mounts seem pretty common on my car (2002 Acura TL Type S).  Most people were saying their mounts went bad around 60K to 100K miles.  I have almost 177K on mine, so surely mine must be shot as well, I thought.

This does explain some symptoms I was seeing with oscillations in the drive train in certain conditions, and wheel hop under hard acceleration.  Looking at the DIY steps it seemed like something we would be able to tackle ourselves and save a ton of money, so I decided to order some new engine mounts and give it a try.