I'm just going to add $h! to this thread until the car either dies or doesn't need anymore work.
Today was fun, since very early on I decided to search for the exhaust leak. The manifolds looked fine, so I figured it was a gasket. I also decided that since I was in a money spending (and work doing) mood, I'd tackle the rear shocks. One thing I dont think I ever mentioned is that my car had the towing package, which included the self-leveling suspension. Air shocks, yay.
So I go to O'Reilly's to price check my shocks and gaskets. They give me my quote but say the shocks are at the warehouse so I move on to AutoZone, which is just up the block. AutoZone gives me a quote (a little less than O'Reilly's) but they tell me they dont have the parts in stock at the store, but the one 4 miles up the road has everything. So I run over there, get my gaskets and shocks and head back over to my sister's house, since my brother-in-law has an air compressor and god's own impact wrench. We tackle the shocks first. Before we get to work, he pops the hood and notices the compressor for the air shocks has been disconnected, but not just disconnected, someone beheaded the power cord so it cant be plugged in. Well $h!. So I take the air shocks back to AutoZone only to discover neither store close by has regular shocks in stock. Well $h!. Back to O'Reilly's to get some regular shocks ($32 for the set, way cheaper than the air shocks were). So I get to work, the driver's side was a snap. The passenger side, not so much. I tried, my bro-in-law tried, but the tailpipe was in the freaking way. Well, the tailpipe is Swiss Cheese and going to be replaced, so I tell him to grab the SawZall and circumsize that bitch. That made it worlds easier. Now I have a section of tailpipe (cut off about 3 inches past the muffler) and no clue what to do with it. Its still in the back of the car. Not to the exhaust leak. Upon closer inspection, the manifold is indeed fine the leak is coming from the gasket between the manifold and the pipe, so now I have the wrong freaking gasket. I go to take the gaskets back and find that I lost the receipt (or forgot to get the original when I took the shocks back) so I have to settle for store credit. I get the donut gasket and get to work. One more trip to O'Reilly's for a new bolt (long freaking story) and the car is good to go. She rides far better, is quieter, and for some reason the SES no longer comes on after a couple minutes.
This car is going to kill me. It had better last through the winter, then I can get my Jeep or Jeep-like vehicle and look into restoring the Q.E.2.