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On the coolant loss...How old is your radiator? My car would run at 3/4 up the gauge in most driving conditions for years and years and mysteriously lose a small amount of coolant with no obvious leak or smoke. The radiator was shot. The fins were falling out of it with a slight leak, and I couldn't see any of this because of the fan. I know it had a leak because I could see the residue from it after I took the rad out. I only saw it when it was time for a timing belt job and I removed it all for better access. You can get a small universal fan at Autozone to replace it if necessary.

First thing I checked was the pickup. It was fine, but I replaced it with a new killer bee while I was in there anyway.

@subaru1988 - the reason why the windscreen guy told you this is because the way the L series has its windscreen fitted is with glue/hard silicone to effectively glue it in place. If there’s any rust under there the windscreen will leak and not hold in place, and if left, the rust will continue unchecked, potentially to a point where it’s irreversible. The MYs/Brats etc have a rubber that grips the body work and the windscreen, so some rust under there doesn’t really need to hold anything if it’s a hole, but it will continue and you’ll probably have a water leak into the cabin too. Cheers Bennie

Yes, I’ve seen it. I’ve seen the exact symptoms you had. Really old OEM tensioners will knock too but I’ve never seen an OEM fail. Aftermarket fail plenty even with low miles. Extraordinary since OEM are run for far more miles from new and have a much larger foot print for failure. Some aftermarket tensioners/kits come with a bolt, I’ve seen those aftermarket bolts snap as well. They have inferior quality and manufacturing probably at multiple levels. Materials quality and sourcing, foundry, design, labor, QA, non ISO or equivalent (not that ISO is all its cracked up to be)….it’s almost pointless to wonder where that cheap train derails. Get an OEM tensioner. We don’t say that 10,000 times a year for no reason.

Look at stars and reviews on Google, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Favor quantity when scouring reviews. In other words if an online Google and Facebook shows 4.5 stars and hundreds of reviews that’s a lot more robust than 3 anecdotal comments from friends or internet forums about how great a place is.

The O2 is used for part-throttle cruise, and idle. It cannot be used for WOT, or acceleration. Just the nature of the sensor. It will throw a code and can cause the ECU to do funny things as it goes into "limp mode" when it experiences failures. The system can never enter closed-loop operation with a bad or missing O2. Your mileage will decrese in a big way..... long story short - use the O2 sensor. A replacement single-wire unit is only about $25 GD