A few things...

-Took the car over 200,000 this weekend, right now it's sitting happily at 200, 640. Have a look at a picture I took as soon as I could pull over for a minute...

-Don Foster was right. The scraping noise I heard was a loose exhaust shield. Made the 1000 miles of driving that much more fun. Thanks!

-I'm getting my front main (control arm?) bushings replaced this weekend.

-I'd been experiencing an oil leak for a while, two local mecahnics diagnosed it as a bad main seal and wanted $200+ to replace it. I bought a few bottles of heavy duty degraser, cleaned off the entire engine/underbody, and with the help of my trusty mechanic here in PA, found out I had a bad engine oil cap. He'd previously replaced the seal, but when it still leaked, realized it was the cap. He said he'd never seen anything like it before. I haven't lost a drop of oil in a week.

-And an actual question: My transmission (auto) is starting to just barely leak from the front (read: expensive) seal. Can I try any of those thickening/non leak additives to moisten the seal or slow the leak from getting worse? I can't afford the $300 to fix this yet, and would like a temporary solution until I can make it back to NH and work for a few weeks. I might actually look into getting the car worked on at Foster's shop while I'm at the Cape for a gig or lesson, the volvo shop in Concord tried to rip me off once already.

Thanks...