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I keep on hearing about this "Seafoam" engine treatment. Despite my tendency to assume that any fuel additives are snake oil (especially ones that claim to be injector cleaners, fuel stabilizers, oil treatments, and everything else under the sun) people (even on here) keep talking good about it. So does it actually do anything, or does it just make pretty clouds of smoke like I suspect it does?
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Aug 26, 2010 05:02
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Someone made a post just yesterday(?) about sending oil samples to blackstone pre and post seafoam and the results were 'better'. I can't remember what thread it was in.
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Aug 26, 2010 05:04
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Found it: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3145227&pagenumber=48&perpage=40#post381152313 And it appears that it did nothing but dilute the oil, which is pretty much what I expected.
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Aug 26, 2010 05:28
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Is there a cabin filter on a 99 Nissan Maxima GXE? Where the gently caress is it? I get tons of air out of the a/c vents, far more than out of my 01 Accord LX. The lovely oil change place said it was totally clogged (but couldn't tell me where it was nor show it to me). I'm reading conflicting info, starting with the 99 didn't have it at all, followed by only the upper end models got it (the GXE is 2nd from bottom of the line). I can't find any mention of it in the owner's manual.
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Aug 26, 2010 09:25
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some texas redneck posted:Is there a cabin filter on a 99 Nissan Maxima GXE? Where the gently caress is it? They were probably just trying to screw you. Are you sure they said cabin filter and not engine air filter?
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Aug 26, 2010 11:01
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thelightguy posted:I keep on hearing about this "Seafoam" engine treatment. Despite my tendency to assume that any fuel additives are snake oil (especially ones that claim to be injector cleaners, fuel stabilizers, oil treatments, and everything else under the sun) people (even on here) keep talking good about it. I can confirm that it lowered just about all catagories of harmful emissions by about 2/3rds (i.e. 99 down to 33, in one of the catagories). I seafoamed about 3 months before the emissions test, and had records showing the previous emissions test, which was 2 years ago. Seafoamed at about 205,000km
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Aug 26, 2010 13:53
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Seafoam is absolutely going to dilute the oil... that's why you change the oil after. It's a cleaning process, not an additive you run under normal conditions.
SynMoo fucked around with this message at 14:19 on Aug 26, 2010 |
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Aug 26, 2010 14:17
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Quick question concerning tires. The tires on my 1991 Eclipse GS-T are dry rotted to poo poo, so I need to get new ones. I probably won't have the car on the road until the end of September and I live in New England. Would it hurt to buy winter tires around September/November and drive around with them? I read on a DSM forum that my car will suck balls in the snow with all seasons, so I don't want to buy summer tires or all seasons to have to replace them in 2 months when it starts snowing.
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Aug 26, 2010 15:21
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Lately I've been having some chattering in first gear. No problems with 2nd, or reverse. I have a feeling I'm still on the origional clutch with ~210km (130k mi), so I'm just wondering if this is a sign that it's starting to wear out, or if I should be looking at something else. (motor/transmission mount?) Chattering is intermitant, and generally goes away when the cars warmed up. Clutch system has a slight leak somewhere, I'm fairly sure its the slave cylinder, but I just keep it topped up and haven't had any issues. I'd replace the slave cylinder but I'd have to drop the transmission to do that 
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Aug 26, 2010 16:13
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Piano posted:Is there a thread somewhere on SA about car navigation units? I've played around with the navigation function on my Android phone (a droid 2) and I'm rather happy with how it works. It interfaces with google maps, so it has all of the strengths and shortcomings that implies. It can get you anywhere from Anchorage to Juarez, but doesn't go any further south than the Mexican border towns. It also can't get you anywhere without roads. Sorry, Barrow, Alaska.
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Aug 26, 2010 16:49
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Super Aggro Crag posted:Quick question concerning tires. I had winter tires on my Neon (so not a huge heavy car) through May or so (it was a really cold May) and took a trip down to NYC from Boston. The tread didn't wear that much at all, certainly less I was expecting. But I usually only drove it once a week, so I probably only put a 1000 miles total on them.
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Aug 26, 2010 19:34
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SynMoo posted:Seafoam is absolutely going to dilute the oil... that's why you change the oil after. It's a cleaning process, not an additive you run under normal conditions. Yes, but the only thing it did according to blackstone was dilute the oil.
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Aug 26, 2010 20:09
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thelightguy posted:Yes, but the only thing it did according to blackstone was dilute the oil. Oil isn't really a corroborative for emissions, and they're two different applications of Seafoam. In the oil, and sucked into the intake of the engine.
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Aug 26, 2010 20:14
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thelightguy posted:Yes, but the only thing it did according to blackstone was dilute the oil. It works best for cleaning the combustion chamber via the brake booster line method, and half a bottle in a tank of gas doesn't hurt either.
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Aug 26, 2010 20:19
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This is a strange request, but can someone please measure the dimensions of a standard 5-quart oil jug for me? Length, width and height?
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Aug 26, 2010 21:16
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Sponge! posted:It works best for cleaning the combustion chamber via the brake booster line method, and half a bottle in a tank of gas doesn't hurt either. Does anybody have any before/after pictures of cylinders or heads with the vacuum line method? I'm guessing it does clean them, but I'm still not convinced the smoke show is anything other than the oil in Seafoam burning off and has nothing to do with how much carbon deposits are removed. VVV I know Walmart and Autozone carry the 5 quart jugs. They are actually 5 Liters or 5.28 quarts. VVV sbyers77 fucked around with this message at 21:59 on Aug 26, 2010 |
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Aug 26, 2010 21:27
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standardtoaster posted:This is a strange request, but can someone please measure the dimensions of a standard 5-quart oil jug for me? Length, width and height? I've seen oil sold in 1-quart and 1-gallon sizes, but never 5-quart. Or are you referring to something else?
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Aug 26, 2010 21:46
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Leperflesh posted:I've seen oil sold in 1-quart and 1-gallon sizes, but never 5-quart. Or are you referring to something else? Really?
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Aug 26, 2010 22:04
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...Huh. Lookit that. Well I guess I look stupid now. But honestly I've not ever noticed 5-quart oil containers before. Maybe it's because my last car needed ultra-special VW-approved 5w40 synthetic and the only way I could get it at local places was in 1-quart bottles (and some places don't carry it at all).
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Aug 26, 2010 23:37
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I live in Baltimore City and I flushed and repaired the cooling system in my car a couple of weeks ago. Now I'm stuck with 3 gallons of used antifreeze that nobody will take. The city got out of the automotive fluid recycling business with the budget crunch and none of the automotive parts stores that normally take oil will touch it. Who do I call? Every other disposal business I find on the internet only deals with commercial customers in like 50+ gallon volumes.
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Aug 27, 2010 03:39
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Nothus posted:I live in Baltimore City and I flushed and repaired the cooling system in my car a couple of weeks ago. Now I'm stuck with 3 gallons of used antifreeze that nobody will take. The city got out of the automotive fluid recycling business with the budget crunch and none of the automotive parts stores that normally take oil will touch it. Dealership or other large repair garage. In NY it's state law they have to accept used fluids for recycling (reasonable quantities anyway, they don't have to take drums full if the repair shop down the street decides they don't feel like paying the recycler.) http://www.menv.com/baltimorecityoil.shtml none of these sites will take it?
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Aug 27, 2010 03:46
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Yeah, those are city-owned yards. They take about anything except used oil and antifreeze. I went to two of them just to be sure the guy at the first wasn't BSing me.
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Aug 27, 2010 03:53
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Nothus posted:Yeah, those are city-owned yards. They take about anything except used oil and antifreeze. I went to two of them just to be sure the guy at the first wasn't BSing me. Call the MES at 1-800-473-2925 and let them know that those sites are no longer accepting used oil and antifreeze. I'm pretty sure they're required to accept it as a condition of getting money from the state (for the purpose of recycling oil and antifreeze.) Seriously, that sounds like the city is doing something really sleazy and probably illegal.
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Aug 27, 2010 03:56
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Thanks for the link, I'll call a couple of the Baltimore County sites tomorrow.  Charm City
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Aug 27, 2010 04:04
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I have a 2005 Camry XLE with the V6. I'm curious to see if I can increase the horse power. I've heard that I can get a computer chip that can help do so and that it's pretty cheap. Is this a gimmic, and if not, where should I look for it? Google seems to bring up a lot of shady sites. If it works, is it easy to install?
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Aug 27, 2010 05:57
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You'll do better by getting a better air filter and exhaust than you will by chipping the engine on an otherwise stock Camry.
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Aug 27, 2010 06:11
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Nothus posted:Yeah, those are city-owned yards. They take about anything except used oil and antifreeze. I went to two of them just to be sure the guy at the first wasn't BSing me. http://www.menv.com/baltimorecountyoil.shtml Here's some more in the county, I dunno how far away they'd be though.
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Aug 27, 2010 13:11
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thelightguy posted:Yes, but the only thing it did according to blackstone was dilute the oil. The more I think about it, the more confused I get about what the Seafoam actually did. I didn't add enough Seafoam to dilute the oil by as much as the ppm measurements dropped; I only added about 300 mL to around 4.5L of oil. That wouldn't make a difference to a reading of something at 20 parts per million. Also, everything that changed, went down. But, Seafoam is *supposed* to "clean" the engine, which to my mind means scrubbing some of the crud off of the surfaces, and bringing that crud into solution. Most notably, it should *increase* the measurement of nonsolubles, since those are mostly weird carbon-compounds that presumably started off as gum / varnish / muck / sludge / whatever but got broken up into small enough chunks that they entered suspension in the oil. The other readings that went down - silicon, the various metals, etc. - should have likewise gone *up* if Seafoam was clearing poo poo off of surfaces in my engine. I don't know what happened, but I'm pretty sure nothing bad  On the plus side for Seafoam (besides results like TrueChaos's), if it really was nothing but snake oil, I'd expect the big smoke show for everybody, every time. Run Seafoam through your engine twice in one day, giant smoke cloud both times. Different car, different engine, same cloud. But it doesn't do that, so I think Seafoam really does clean at least some poo poo off of fuel lines, injectors, and maybe inside the oil system. But I'm not 100% sure it does anything *significant*, in a statistics sense. And I don't live somewhere that emissions are monitored, so I can't check that.
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Aug 28, 2010 02:25
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I'm trying to replace the small silicone vacuum line running from the intake manifold to the fuel injector, would any type of silicone tubing of the right size work? I have some aquarium air line lying around but none of the automotive branded stuff. I also have some R/C fuel tubing of the right size. I'm going to the parts store tomorrow anyway, but it would be good to know for the future and for the sake of curiosity. The aquarium line might be made of a more fragile non-toxic formula?
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Aug 28, 2010 02:59
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While I was picking up a pair of drums and shoes at vatozone, one of the employee's friends told me I should scuff up the inside of the new drums so they won't make noise. I just said "ok" and tried looking up more information about this. I can only find DIY's that tell you how to do this and the only reason I found why you should do this is to remove the material bedded from the old shoes/pads on a used set of drums/rotors. It still sounds like a real mickey-mouse-job thing to do. I can't find anymore information about this, and I want to know if this is just a load or not before I actually replace these brakes. I don't want to open these things up again until the next time these shoes are actually worn.
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Aug 28, 2010 04:06
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I really wanted a mustang. They have a new kickass engine, they look awesome, and I love the brown leather interior. Just one problem, I tried to sit in it today and couldn't get comfortable. The back seats are some kind of joke, too. So, what's the scoop on Altima Coupes? I test drove one of those and it seemed great. Are the 2008s known for any issues? Any compelling reason to buy a 2010? Anybody here drive one? edit: Altima Coupe 3.5, there's no way in hell I'd get the four cylinder. BaronW fucked around with this message at 05:13 on Aug 28, 2010 |
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Aug 28, 2010 05:09
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ExecuDork posted:On the plus side for Seafoam (besides results like TrueChaos's), if it really was nothing but snake oil, I'd expect the big smoke show for everybody, every time. Run Seafoam through your engine twice in one day, giant smoke cloud both times. Different car, different engine, same cloud. But it doesn't do that, so I think Seafoam really does clean at least some poo poo off of fuel lines, injectors, and maybe inside the oil system. But I'm not 100% sure it does anything *significant*, in a statistics sense. And I don't live somewhere that emissions are monitored, so I can't check that. Being the skeptic that I am, I'll see if I can test what just plain Seafoam smoke looks like when heated past the smoke point to see if it is at all similar to the exhaust smoke show.
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Aug 28, 2010 08:47
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Prelude Gundam posted:While I was picking up a pair of drums and shoes at vatozone, one of the employee's friends told me I should scuff up the inside of the new drums so they won't make noise. I just said "ok" and tried looking up more information about this. There's not really much point in roughing up the inside of the new drums - they have a slightly rough finish from manufacturing to help bed in the shoes. The exception is when you're using new shoes with old drums then it's a good idea to rough up the inner surface of the drum to help bed in the new shoes.
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Aug 28, 2010 15:26
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Does anyone have any good tips on rusty nut removal? Can't for the life of me get the nuts to loosen on my end exhaust bit.
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Aug 28, 2010 16:00
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kimbo305 posted:I had winter tires on my Neon (so not a huge heavy car) through May or so (it was a really cold May) and took a trip down to NYC from Boston. The tread didn't wear that much at all, certainly less I was expecting. But I usually only drove it once a week, so I probably only put a 1000 miles total on them. Well, I'll be driving from Springfield to NoHo twice a week for class and probably just as far every weekday for work.
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Aug 28, 2010 16:21
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sbyers77 posted:Being the skeptic that I am, I'll see if I can test what just plain Seafoam smoke looks like when heated past the smoke point to see if it is at all similar to the exhaust smoke show. If you follow the seafoaming process every thousand miles / weekend / whatever on a given car, the smoke show each time from the same procedure will get smaller.
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Aug 28, 2010 16:25
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Maybe a stupid question or maybe gremlins have taken full control of my car... Any advise or help would be great. It's a 97 Subaru Legacy: The other day it started to really shake from the front driver's side, like I was sure the tire was flat kind of shake but it wasn't. Then it went away for awhile and did it only sometimes. I figured it was a CV joint/axle type thing. But then it started to get worse and worse and I limped it back home at like 15mph. When I turned a sharp left into the driveway there was a loud pop. AND THEN: when I put into Park now it doesn't engage at all, but the e-brake works. Drive and Reverse both work so I guess it's the parking pawl?, but it makes no sense to me why both things would happen at the same time so maybe it's something else. Any ideas?
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Aug 28, 2010 17:09
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So I recently read that, with manual transmissions, it's better to coast downhill whilst in gear, rather than in neutral. The logic presented was that, in neutral, the car has to supply gas to keep the engine running, but if it's in gear, the movement of the wheels does that with less gas. Confirm/Deny? Edit: The entire article was presented as way to improve fuel economy, which seems pretty iffy to me...
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Aug 28, 2010 22:12
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Mister Biff posted:So I recently read that, with manual transmissions, it's better to coast downhill whilst in gear, rather than in neutral. The logic presented was that, in neutral, the car has to supply gas to keep the engine running, but if it's in gear, the movement of the wheels does that with less gas. It's illegal in some places to coast in neutral. It's unsafe in any case. Modern engine control (say, past 15 years) can detect when the engine doesn't need fuel to turn (like when a car is dragging it downhill) and will cut fuel completely. This definitely saves over the gas needed to idle the motor while you're coasting in neutral.
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Aug 28, 2010 22:43
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my1999gsr posted:There's not really much point in roughing up the inside of the new drums - they have a slightly rough finish from manufacturing to help bed in the shoes. The exception is when you're using new shoes with old drums then it's a good idea to rough up the inner surface of the drum to help bed in the new shoes. Thanks again, gsr buddy. I figured the finish from the factory was good enough for seating new shoes properly. Now that I know this, how do I reply to advice like that again, if they say it eliminates noise? I'd figure it would very very slightly take the drum out of round and as a result won't allow an even bed-in of the shoes. The noise is supposed to go away right after the bed-in period anyway, right? Mister Biff posted:So I recently read that, with manual transmissions, it's better to coast downhill whilst in gear, rather than in neutral. The logic presented was that, in neutral, the car has to supply gas to keep the engine running, but if it's in gear, the movement of the wheels does that with less gas. When going downhill it's always best to be select a lower gear to keep your car at a steady pace without having to stay on or frequently apply your brakes. If it's an automatic, you should still be able to select an alternate "D" mode such as D2 or D3, which will usually limit the amount of gears it will be able to select. Though doing this in an automatic car isn't quite as effective as doing the same in a car with a manual transmission, it will use the engine as a brake for the wheels to reduce necessity of applying the brakes. The reason this is highly recommended (if not enforced) is because it will prevent overheating of your brake system which would lead to its failure, most often leading to a terrible accident. Even feathering the brakes for long enough can be asking for the system to absorb more heat than it has the capacity to. There are many factors to this which include quality of the brake fluid in your system, percentage of water absorbed in the system, brake pad/shoe compound type, rotor/drum material, size and design of the wheels, fresh airflow and relative heat dissipation of the brakes, and it goes on. As an example of how the engine will consume less fuel, my car (2001 Acura Integra) will simply shut all injectors off if off throttle and above 1000RPM. If the air conditioning is on, the speed at which they shut off is above ~1500RPM in order to maintain the higher load required to run the air compressor without causing the engine to become juttery, or bog. Different cars will most likely have a different speed at which the injectors will shut off when the throttle is not being applied. An easy way to tell with most cars is to find an empty parking lot, throw your car into 1st gear, drive to about 10mph --without hitting anything-- then take your foot off the accelerator. Wait for the speed of the car to slow until it slightly bucks forward, then back again. You will notice that the car may keep slightly bucking back and forth, but attempting to maintain a certain engine speed. This is very close to what speed your injectors will shut off when not applying the throttle. One trick I have used to exploit this is to turn on the air conditioning when in lower gear going downhill and I need just a little more resistance without having to select an even lower gear. Doing this will use the air compressor as a brake for the wheels (also free air conditioning!) Otherwise you'll just be using your car's kinetic energy to heat up your brakes. Overall, this benefits the average person by saving just a little bit of fuel (as you were asking) and being able to use the engine as a brake when going downhill. Remember that different cars will function differently, and newer cars might even have a tapered fuel trim in order to smooth the transition from injectors off to on when coming to a stop. I mean, fart.
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Aug 29, 2010 00:02
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