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Raluek
Nov 3, 2006

WUT.

Sentient Data posted:

Yeah, I've noticed that with both the Lebaron and a 2nd gen Prius that the gas curves are pretty parabolic (it doesn't even dip below full for a long time, then it moves a bit quicker the lower it gets), I'm just surprised to hear that it might be a few gallons below empty rather than just maybe 1ish. Granted who knows how crappy it is in there due to PO negligence, but a fuel filter change a few hundred miles after I got it, then few thousand more miles on high octane 0 ethanol and lucas cleaner probably washed out anything non-solid at least

When my mom bought her Honda Odyssey I remember reading in the manual that there was (by design) 3 gallons "reserve" past empty. I'd imagine all manufacturers do something similar, but surely the amount varies. But I don't know that "a few" gallons would be out of the ordinary.

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MRC48B
Apr 2, 2012

There is a technical reason for that as well, as the fuel pump uses the gasoline it sits in as a heat sink. Run the tank completely dry and on some designs you have a chance of burning out your pump.

EightBit
Jan 7, 2006
I spent money on this line of text just to make the "Stupid Newbie" go away.

SperginMcBadposter posted:

Is there a way to make tirerack let me choose sizes and bolt patterns manually? I want to buy a 15' 4x100mm pattern steel wheel but it only shows them in 14' for my car.

It looks like you'll have to shop by brand to pick the wheel size and bolt pattern.

Kia Soul Enthusias
May 9, 2004

zoom-zoom
Toilet Rascal

MRC48B posted:

There is a technical reason for that as well, as the fuel pump uses the gasoline it sits in as a heat sink. Run the tank completely dry and on some designs you have a chance of burning out your pump.

I hear this from people but is it really true?

brand engager
Mar 23, 2011

EightBit posted:

It looks like you'll have to shop by brand to pick the wheel size and bolt pattern.

I ended up doing it by finding a listing online of what cars came with which wheels size + bolt patterns. Ended up setting my vehicle to a chevy colbalt instead of my actual car and it brought up 15' 4x100mm steelies like I wanted it to in the first place. :v:
Picking up the 5 tires and the steelie from their distribution center monday. RIP 453 dollars

Godholio
Aug 28, 2002

Does a bear split in the woods near Zheleznogorsk?

spog posted:

Has anyone here had a car with an accurate fuel gauge?

(I.e. the readings other than 'full' being correct)

Based on the time I ran out of gas less than a block from the station, my 2002 Focus had a dead-on gauge.

puberty worked me over
May 20, 2013

by Cyrano4747
.

puberty worked me over fucked around with this message at 03:15 on Jan 4, 2020

brand engager
Mar 23, 2011

Extra posted:

iirc the cobalt has a 57.1mm hub bore and the zx2 has a 54.1mm hub bore. You may want to get some hub centric rings if you feel a vibration at highway speeds.

Doesn't the conical shape of the lug nuts center the wheel?

puberty worked me over
May 20, 2013

by Cyrano4747
.

puberty worked me over fucked around with this message at 03:15 on Jan 4, 2020

KozmoNaut
Apr 23, 2008

Happiness is a warm
Turbo Plasma Rifle


spog posted:

Has anyone here had a car with an accurate fuel gauge?

(I.e. the readings other than 'full' being correct)

My Peugeot 406 seems to be reasonably accurate, at least I'm pretty much at the expected mileage for the entire sweep of the gauge. I've run it down to just barely below empty once, and I could put in ~2 liters less than the stated capacity when I filled up again.

The coolant and oil temp gauges also seem to not just be glorified idiot lights, which is nice.

theHUNGERian
Feb 23, 2006

Hey guys,

2012 Subaru Outback, 60k miles. It's a recent purchase so I am still figuring out what is normal. Over the last 4 weeks, I've noticed a drop in the antifreeze level. My best guess is that it dropped by the equivalent of one or two rice cups worth of liquid; nothing alarming, but measurable. I measured this when the engine was cold (outside temps were practically the same at each measurement), so I am certain it is actually dropping - not just thermal expansion. Would this be considered a seep, a leak, or is this normal? I don't recall ever having to refill the antifreeze in my 97 Sentra with 240k miles.

Sentient Data
Aug 31, 2011

My molecule scrambler ray will disintegrate your armor with one blow!
Do you know if the seller did a fluid exchange immediately (as in less than like 20 miles) before selling the car? When you drain/refill the fluid, it takes a cycle or two of repressurizing (fully heating) the coolant system to force the last of the air out of all the hoses

theHUNGERian
Feb 23, 2006

Sentient Data posted:

Do you know if the seller did a fluid exchange immediately (as in less than like 20 miles) before selling the car? When you drain/refill the fluid, it takes a cycle or two of repressurizing (fully heating) the coolant system to force the last of the air out of all the hoses

I don't know, but I doubt it as I bought it through a dealership and I don't see why they would go through the trouble of doing that given that it costs them $$$ and it's only recommended after 100k miles.

Godholio
Aug 28, 2002

Does a bear split in the woods near Zheleznogorsk?
I would just keep an eye on it for a while. If it continues, I'd do an oil change and see if the oil looks off (even if that's where the coolant is going I'm not sure there's enough to see it yet). Maybe pick up some white butcher paper to lay under the car (use bricks or something to hold it in place) to see if there's a slow drip you're just not seeing. It should stain white paper even if it dries before you check.

theHUNGERian
Feb 23, 2006

Godholio posted:

I would just keep an eye on it for a while. If it continues, I'd do an oil change and see if the oil looks off (even if that's where the coolant is going I'm not sure there's enough to see it yet). Maybe pick up some white butcher paper to lay under the car (use bricks or something to hold it in place) to see if there's a slow drip you're just not seeing. It should stain white paper even if it dries before you check.

Will do, thank you.

22 Eargesplitten
Oct 10, 2010



Does anyone have a sealable drain pan recommendation? I bought a screw-on drain pan at wal-mart, and it leaks all over the place. I'd like to not cover the cargo area with a thin layer of oil every time I take my oil to be disposed.

Raluek
Nov 3, 2006

WUT.
I've been happy with my Harbor Freight one. I don't know how their quality varies from piece to piece, but the one I ended up with seals fine. You just have to really crank on the big drain cap, and the guys at autozone usually put it back on cross-threaded, so make sure it's on straight before you haul off on it.

Sentient Data
Aug 31, 2011

My molecule scrambler ray will disintegrate your armor with one blow!
How about using some RTV to make a gasket on the cap? Haven't tried it personally, but that might work well enough for you instead of spending :10bux:

Geoj
May 28, 2008

BITTER POOR PERSON
I use a basic drain pan and pour the oil into a separate jug that seals better. Something like this.

InitialDave
Jun 14, 2007

I Want To Believe.
I use a large (~4 gallon) plastic oil container from work to put oil in. Drain from the sump into a 99p washing-up bowl, decant it into the large tub, take it to the tiprecycling centre :jerkbag: when full.

EightBit
Jan 7, 2006
I spent money on this line of text just to make the "Stupid Newbie" go away.
I have enough ground clearance to drain straight into a five gallon bucket. If you can't do that, transfer from your shorter drain pan to a five gallon bucket.

B4Ctom1
Oct 5, 2003

OVERWORKED COCK
Slippery Tilde
I live at 8000 feet in the mountains. The weather gets really bad here. It gets darker than a well diggers rear end in a top hat in the klondike. Recently when driving my wife's 2015 and my 2009 subarus, I noticed her HID on her 2015 allows me to see danger in the road like wildlife much better than the bulbs on my 2009.

The harsh vibrations of the washboarded road prematurely kills so many of our headlight bulbs in all of our vehicles. I am not looking forward to a blown out HID bulb in her 2015. I am also afraid to do an HID conversion on my 2009. I did buy expensive Sylvania bulbs and they burned out in 5000 miles. First one side and then the other. I don't need to pay that much when I can get that kind of lovely light life out of regular bulbs.

Since we have no laws against adding lighting here, no inspection, basically almost no laws at all in Wyoming, would it make me a horrible person to add an LED light bar? We have almost no traffic, and I wouldn't use it to irritate people anyways because I am not that kind of person.

tl;dr I need more lighting and conventional options are failing.

edit: btw I see idiots driving around with these things on in traffic and even the daylight and it irks me I guess because I am getting old and crotchety.

B4Ctom1 fucked around with this message at 03:39 on Apr 12, 2015

Fender Anarchist
May 20, 2009

Fender Anarchist

I can't speak on the LED/high power bulb stuff, but vibration kills light bulbs by shaking (and overstressing) the metal filament, causing it to break. HIDs, being an arc between two beefy electrodes, do not have this problem, so you're probably fine on her car.

On that note, was your car offered with HIDs in that model year? If so, you might be able to get a set of housings, ballast and bulbs to use in your car.

E: I say this because although LEDs put out plenty of light, they're also blinding, so you'd pretty much have to trigger them off the high beam circuit (are your high beams too dim or just the low beams?), and honestly they're generally overkill for on-road use.

Fender Anarchist fucked around with this message at 03:42 on Apr 12, 2015

B4Ctom1
Oct 5, 2003

OVERWORKED COCK
Slippery Tilde

Fucknag posted:

I can't speak on the LED/high power bulb stuff, but vibration kills light bulbs by shaking (and overstressing) the metal filament, causing it to break. HIDs, being an arc between two beefy electrodes, do not have this problem, so you're probably fine on her car.

On that note, was your car offered with HIDs in that model year? If so, you might be able to get a set of housings, ballast and bulbs to use in your car.

Wow this is good news! I am glad you recognized that I knew nothing about HID bulbs themselves.

I did install very expensive HID for someone else many years ago (because I am good with automotive electrical) in a Baja 1000 wannabe type Beetle conversion.

Today, there is so much stuff out there I am afraid it might be junk.

B4Ctom1
Oct 5, 2003

OVERWORKED COCK
Slippery Tilde

Fucknag posted:

E: I say this because although LEDs put out plenty of light, they're also blinding, so you'd pretty much have to trigger them off the high beam circuit (are your high beams too dim or just the low beams?), and honestly they're generally overkill for on-road use.

The highs have projector lenses, but they don't reach far enough out. I was hoping that moving the lighting up higher on the car near the rack that it might give me what I need.

Putting the relay command to the high-beam control would allow me a faster/safer way to kill it fast to protect other drivers suddenly appearing as well.

It sounds good but I am still intrigued by the HID option now.

Fender Anarchist
May 20, 2009

Fender Anarchist

It's a good option, provided it's done right; I'd venture to say that 99.9% of "DOT APPROVED" kits out there are crap for doing anything but spray light all over the road (ie not in the direction you're looking).

If you don't mind, what model is your car? It would help to be able to look up, like I said, if it came with HIDs as an option.

If not, there are ways to retrofit the proper projector into your existing housings, but it's a fair bit of work (having to align the projectors properly in the housing, calibrate/attach level sensor if applicable, etc.)

B4Ctom1
Oct 5, 2003

OVERWORKED COCK
Slippery Tilde

Fucknag posted:

It's a good option, provided it's done right; I'd venture to say that 99.9% of "DOT APPROVED" kits out there are crap for doing anything but spray light all over the road (ie not in the direction you're looking).

If you don't mind, what model is your car? It would help to be able to look up, like I said, if it came with HIDs as an option.

If not, there are ways to retrofit the proper projector into your existing housings, but it's a fair bit of work (having to align the projectors properly in the housing, calibrate/attach level sensor if applicable, etc.)

2009 Subaru Outback 2.5i

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

B4Ctom1 posted:

2009 Subaru Outback 2.5i

I had a lightbar from Primitive Racing on my Outback. http://www.writerguy.com/primitive/lighting.htm

That plus $200 worth of LED lightbar would not be a bad option if you pinky swear that you will not blind oncoming drivers.

B4Ctom1
Oct 5, 2003

OVERWORKED COCK
Slippery Tilde

Safety Dance posted:

I had a lightbar from Primitive Racing on my Outback. http://www.writerguy.com/primitive/lighting.htm

That plus $200 worth of LED lightbar would not be a bad option if you pinky swear that you will not blind oncoming drivers.

I think I might go the HID way, at the very least initially since the cost is not horrible. There are a bunch on Amazon but only one has 2500 reviews.

As far as blinding people with an LED bar, there ain't nobody to blind in Wyoming. The state is empty. But I feel bad if I click my highbeams 1 second late when a car is approaching with regular headlights. I wouldn't even use an LED (if I ever did get one) until I got off the highway.

Geoj
May 28, 2008

BITTER POOR PERSON
The only safe/responsible way to add HID to a car that didn't come stock with it is either add OEM HID housings, or if they were not offered on your vehicle crack your stock housings open and retrofit a set of HID projectors into them. I don't care how many times you've heard it, just because your headlights have projector housings doesn't mean it's safe to install a kit of re-keyed HID bulbs into them.

Slavvy
Dec 11, 2012

B4Ctom1 posted:

I think I might go the HID way, at the very least initially since the cost is not horrible. There are a bunch on Amazon but only one has 2500 reviews.

As far as blinding people with an LED bar, there ain't nobody to blind in Wyoming. The state is empty. But I feel bad if I click my highbeams 1 second late when a car is approaching with regular headlights. I wouldn't even use an LED (if I ever did get one) until I got off the highway.

Just get a light bar and learn to use your fingers to operate a little lever. It isn't hard, you do it for indicators and wipers and poo poo all the time.

Godholio
Aug 28, 2002

Does a bear split in the woods near Zheleznogorsk?

Geoj posted:

The only safe/responsible way to add HID to a car that didn't come stock with it is either add OEM HID housings, or if they were not offered on your vehicle crack your stock housings open and retrofit a set of HID projectors into them. I don't care how many times you've heard it, just because your headlights have projector housings doesn't mean it's safe to install a kit of re-keyed HID bulbs into them.

This, this, this.



The expensive halogens run hotter so they don't last as long. During their lives they're usually brighter though. Avoid the ones that have blue-tinted glass though...why would you want tinted light bulbs? Oh yeah, to make it look whiter even though all it's doing is fooling your brain and actually producing less light (because they're loving TINTED).

Sylvania recently lost a class action lawsuit over their bullshit bulbs.

B4Ctom1
Oct 5, 2003

OVERWORKED COCK
Slippery Tilde

Geoj posted:

The only safe/responsible way to add HID to a car that didn't come stock with it is either add OEM HID housings, or if they were not offered on your vehicle crack your stock housings open and retrofit a set of HID projectors into them. I don't care how many times you've heard it, just because your headlights have projector housings doesn't mean it's safe to install a kit of re-keyed HID bulbs into them.

Is it because they melt or because of light spattering/blinding/leakage?

I am not debating. It is all very helpful, I am just curious.

B4Ctom1
Oct 5, 2003

OVERWORKED COCK
Slippery Tilde
I did some searching for dedicated 08 to 11 HID housings. I can see that they have a big silver ring in them, possibly made of metal that seemingly holds the projector.

Is this to stop all the abhorrent light bleed that I think you guys are getting at?

VelociBacon
Dec 8, 2009

Where's a good place to buy a new fender online? 2007 GTI, should be common enough.

two_beer_bishes
Jun 27, 2004

VelociBacon posted:

Where's a good place to buy a new fender online? 2007 GTI, should be common enough.

Have you checked rockauto.com?

VelociBacon
Dec 8, 2009

two_beer_bishes posted:

Have you checked rockauto.com?

Yeah that's the first place I looked but I couldn't find front fenders and I would really like to buy some pre-painted ones since the paint on the rest of the car looks basically new (50k kms on the car and it's been garage kept).

Geoj
May 28, 2008

BITTER POOR PERSON

B4Ctom1 posted:

Is it because they melt or because of light spattering/blinding/leakage?

The latter. The reflector (even in a projector housing) is designed around the bulb, so filament length, shape, orientation and output are all critical factors in what happens with the light. Since HID bulbs generate light through an arc instead of a filament the light source is radically different from any halogen bulb, and as a result the light that comes out under the cutoff is going to scatter. This will result in a dangerous situation not only for other drivers being blinded by your headlights, but it will also cause the lighted area ahead of your car to be massively insufficient and overly bright, both not illuminating sufficiently at a distance and reducing your ability to see in the dark because the immediate area in front of your car will be highly illuminated.


VelociBacon posted:

Yeah that's the first place I looked but I couldn't find front fenders and I would really like to buy some pre-painted ones since the paint on the rest of the car looks basically new (50k kms on the car and it's been garage kept).

Only place you're going to be able to obtain a pre-painted body part is a junkyard.

Geoj fucked around with this message at 20:14 on Apr 12, 2015

Tomarse
Mar 7, 2001

Grr



Can any other UK/European goons help here?

I'm driving over to France on Tuesday AM from the UK

I have always put some tape on my headlights to stop them dazzling people but every other car I have had has had the section I need to tape marked on the lens.

This car only has a single X on the light cover which I gather is the centre point.

If I go out when it is dark tonight and point the car at a wall, I assume the bit I want to cover with tape is the bit that slopes up above the straight line my lights give on the wall - so a long flat triangle with its end point on the X mark is likely to do this?

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Geoj
May 28, 2008

BITTER POOR PERSON

Tomarse posted:

If I go out when it is dark tonight and point the car at a wall, I assume the bit I want to cover with tape is the bit that slopes up above the straight line my lights give on the wall - so a long flat triangle with its end point on the X mark is likely to do this?

Sounds like your lights are out of alignment. Procedure for aiming is usually park the car on a level surface X feet/meters from a flat background, measure the distance from the ground to the center mark on the headlight, then add Y inches/centimeters to this and make a horizontal line on the surface. Then you raise/lower the beam until the cutoff is on that line.

I can't remember the formula off the top of my head, it's been a while since I had to aim headlights.

e: this might help: https://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/aim/aim.html

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