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BlackMK4
Aug 23, 2006

wat.
Megamarm
The lithium battery in my track R6 is shimmed to fit the space using foam :v:

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Captain Hair
Dec 31, 2007

Of course, that can backfire... some men like their bitches crazy.
In our Peugeot 306 it's held down with a real awkward bracket that grabs the battery by the base, you need at least 1 socket extension to slide down between the batt and the inner wing to get at he bolt. Bonus since its then at bottom of the tray it'll typically rust to hell leaving you with a dead battery stuck in place. Then when you do get it replaced the new battery has a slightly different base that doesn't fit the grip and you end up with an mot certificate like mine with the warning "battery loose but secure".

On the flip side our other vehicle, land rover defender, has a bare metal bar that you have to clamp over the top running parallel to the terminals, I make drat sure it's down tight as it'd all too happily slide over and bridge them.

FatCow
Apr 22, 2002
I MAP THE FUCK OUT OF PEOPLE
The vent lines on my track Miata don't stay on. I also removed some of the bits that keep the front and trunk separate.

The Door Frame
Dec 5, 2011

I don't know man everytime I go to the gym here there are like two huge dudes with raging high and tights snorting Nitro-tech off of each other's rock hard abs.
My battery is backwards because the one with the terminals arranged properly was $50 more and had a much lower capacity. Now the insulated leads hold my hood stand in place because getting them hooked into the opposite sides of the battery blocked access to the plastic clip that's supposed to hold it down.

My girlfriend's E34 is finally off the road, thank God. There was a leak in the sun roof that let water trickle into the passenger side floor, where the battery sits. The last time I looked, there was 2-3in of water surrounding the battery :magical: Every time I heard that fluid slosh, I kept waiting for the electric fire to start and then hit the gas tank.
But one or both of us being immolated in 3,200 lbs of German steel is no longer a worry ever since the brake lines rotted out and dumped all of the hydraulic fluid onto her driveway. Good problems?

BlackMK4
Aug 23, 2006

wat.
Megamarm
Reminded me of last night. I'm swapping out the entire wiring harness on my Aprilia Tuono because Italian motorcycle and, unlike every bike I've owned before, when you unhook the fuel lines the tank drains right out. I ended up dumping about 2gal of gas on the garage floor before I could get the tank completely off the bike and out. During this I realized I had an electric bug zapper sitting on the floor six feet away and figured if a bug got zapped I might get blown the gently caress up too. :lol:

clam ache
Sep 6, 2009

mobby_6kl posted:

I did that with my Miata. It's been fine for years and didn't even move after several track days. As far as I'm concerned, I just fabricated a custom battery mount :colbert:.

That's how we look at it in my shop. And it's much better and safer then the gently caress knob who used roadflares for a snug fit.

iwentdoodie
Apr 29, 2005

🤗YOU'RE WELCOME🤗

BlackMK4 posted:

Reminded me of last night. I'm swapping out the entire wiring harness on my Aprilia Tuono because Italian motorcycle and, unlike every bike I've owned before, when you unhook the fuel lines the tank drains right out. I ended up dumping about 2gal of gas on the garage floor before I could get the tank completely off the bike and out. During this I realized I had an electric bug zapper sitting on the floor six feet away and figured if a bug got zapped I might get blown the gently caress up too. :lol:

Holy poo poo. I did that in Guam with my old RD. Even down to bug zapper sitting on the floor.

FuzzKill
Apr 1, 2005

Snuff the punk.

Seat Safety Switch posted:

It sounds like from the repair thread posted above there is an actual vent line from the compartment. Probably the vent line got knocked off or the new battery didn't have the fixins to attach the vent line to it.

You see sort of the same thing happen when guys replace the stock Miata batteries with j. random parts-shop battery that no longer has provisions to attach the vent hose.

I did the opposite. I have a Miata battery under the hood of the Z. Now I have vent hoses with nowhere to run them to!

Geoj
May 28, 2008

BITTER POOR PERSON

The Door Frame posted:

My girlfriend's E34 is finally off the road, thank God. There was a leak in the sun roof that let water trickle into the passenger side floor, where the battery sits.
...
But one or both of us being immolated in 3,200 lbs of German steel is no longer a worry ever since the brake lines rotted out and dumped all of the hydraulic fluid onto her driveway. Good problems?

Sounds like you have two problems to fix now.

Seat Safety Switch
May 27, 2008

MY RELIGION IS THE SMALL BLOCK V8 AND COMMANDMENTS ONE THROUGH TEN ARE NEVER LIFT.

Pillbug

Geoj posted:

Sounds like you have two problems to fix now.

Getting rid of the girlfriend and finding a new one?

The Door Frame
Dec 5, 2011

I don't know man everytime I go to the gym here there are like two huge dudes with raging high and tights snorting Nitro-tech off of each other's rock hard abs.

Geoj posted:

Sounds like you have two problems to fix now.

It's been effectively totaled. Replacing the rear subframe and the metal brake lines is $1500, but the car is only worth $800.
Plus it has a bad fuel pump, the fuel tank is starting to leak, it has no suspension bushings, most sensors need to be replaced, I don't even know what happened to the ECU, the wheels have corroded to the point of emptying the tires every few weeks, and it has lost almost all compression in of 2 of its 6 cylinders.

Say what you want to about German Engineering, but that poor car ran for years after any sane person would have been taken it off the road and sold it for parts

E:

Seat Safety Switch posted:

Getting rid of the girlfriend and finding a new one?

I'd say that counts as 1 combined problem. The really big problem has been repeatedly talking her out of buying a 2017 Toyota Camry while she works part time and still has a year and a half left for her degree :bang:
"But if I get a 60 month loan, it'll only be $230 a month, it'll be worth it just to be in a new car." It's only taken 5 months, but I have convinced her to look at cars in the ~$4,000 price range instead of ~$18,000...

The Door Frame fucked around with this message at 06:19 on Oct 24, 2016

randomidiot
May 12, 2006

by Fluffdaddy

(and can't post for 11 years!)

Where the hell is she finding a brand new Camry for $17k? :stare: The MSRP for a base model Corolla is more than that.

Godholio
Aug 28, 2002

Does a bear split in the woods near Zheleznogorsk?
230x60=13,800

She's not finding a 2017 anything for that price. In 2002 my barebones Ford Focus cost more than that. A Camry starts over 23k.

randomidiot
May 12, 2006

by Fluffdaddy

(and can't post for 11 years!)

And that's not even factoring interest. :10bux: says that 60 month "loan" is really a super low mileage lease.

But uh.... yeah, you can get a few 2017 cars for that price.

The 2017 Versa. Includes air conditioning and a stereo with Bluetooth (for phone calls only, not streaming, if I'm reading their website correctly), plus power steering and power mirrors.



And the 2017 Mitsubishi Mirage. Features seem pretty comparable to the Versa, except it also has power windows, power locks, and keyless entry. And Bluetooth is optional instead of standard.



Also below $14k is the Chevy Spark. The Ford Fiesta is just a hair over $14k (by less than $200) for a base model. Ironically, I fully expected the Kia Rio to be the lowest cost car, but the base model Rio is about the same price as a Fiesta.

.... yeah, definitely nowhere near a Camry in terms of what you get. But you can find a handful of brand new cars around that price point.

randomidiot fucked around with this message at 10:04 on Oct 24, 2016

The Door Frame
Dec 5, 2011

I don't know man everytime I go to the gym here there are like two huge dudes with raging high and tights snorting Nitro-tech off of each other's rock hard abs.
I had agreed to cosign a car that was about $5,000 and honestly stopped paying that much attention to the cars she wanted after they started to get more expensive than $8,000. It may have been a 2017 Corolla and a 2015 (?) Camry she was deciding between, but I remember distinctly telling her to not go to any dealerships without me, and then a few hours later getting a text about how excited she was to get a brand new Toyota along with a picture of the loan paperwork she wanted me to help fill out.
I love that woman, and she's usually better with money than I am, but I think the excitement of finally getting a car that could safely go above 40mph made her a little crazy.


Speaking of unsafe cars and the women in my life, my sister got a shady civic and is having problems with it. Almost none of the parts match each other and it was clearly used as a racer before she got a hold of it. The sway bars were cut and the control arms are severely damaged, and surprise surprise, it's chewing up tires like crazy for some inexplicable reason. I guess tires are cheaper to replace than the 2 broken control arms, but she's on tire #3 this month

BloodBag
Sep 20, 2008

WITNESS ME!



How about horrible engineering failures?

One of my coworkers is an industrial engineer, and I'm a CMM programmer. He told me that his wife's car, a Kia, had clunky, sloppy steering and it needed a new coupler. I thought it was a rag joint. I was wrong. He wanted me to reverse-engineer this thing, because it's literally a little rubber lego star. My coworker, using my analysis, will be making these out of something a little bit more resilient than scrub-tier rubber. He says that Kias are notorious for this and the lovely rubber gets shredded in less than 40,000 miles because of how hot it gets down here in Texas, coupled(lol) with it being mounted on a motor assembly. Video related.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmmVJlF2ZRo

Wasabi the J
Jan 23, 2008

MOM WAS RIGHT

The Door Frame posted:

I had agreed to cosign a car that was about $5,000 and honestly stopped paying that much attention to the cars she wanted after they started to get more expensive than $8,000. It may have been a 2017 Corolla and a 2015 (?) Camry she was deciding between, but I remember distinctly telling her to not go to any dealerships without me, and then a few hours later getting a text about how excited she was to get a brand new Toyota along with a picture of the loan paperwork she wanted me to help fill out.
I love that woman, and she's usually better with money than I am, but I think the excitement of finally getting a car that could safely go above 40mph made her a little crazy.


Speaking of unsafe cars and the women in my life, my sister got a shady civic and is having problems with it. Almost none of the parts match each other and it was clearly used as a racer before she got a hold of it. The sway bars were cut and the control arms are severely damaged, and surprise surprise, it's chewing up tires like crazy for some inexplicable reason. I guess tires are cheaper to replace than the 2 broken control arms, but she's on tire #3 this month

I refuse to help my mother shop for anything now. I just look at it and say "cool! looks better than the last [x]."

It's loving insane how much my parents want confirmation bias when shopping.

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.
I gave up giving advise to people on what to buy beyond "all cars suck for one reason or another, some are worse than others, buy one with a warranty or get used to wrenching, if you are willing to wrench buy 10+ year old so you can get parts at the junkyard without getting screwed on price, 90s honda 4cyls and toyotas are good, also 91-99 jeep NOT grand cherokees, have fun, I'm not fixing it for you but will be glad to tell you what's wrong with anything you ask about"

And that's how my dad stopped asking me what to buy and decided a caddy STS too old to pass emissions and too new to not have to, with a slipping trans, rusted brake lines, and a northstar that will probably need the head studs done soon was a great loving idea and proudly told me what he bought the next time he saw me! :eng99:

Terrible Robot
Jul 2, 2010

FRIED CHICKEN
Slippery Tilde

kastein posted:

I gave up giving advise to people on what to buy beyond "all cars suck for one reason or another, some are worse than others, buy one with a warranty or get used to wrenching, if you are willing to wrench buy 10+ year old so you can get parts at the junkyard without getting screwed on price, 90s honda 4cyls and toyotas are good, also 91-99 jeep NOT grand cherokees, have fun, I'm not fixing it for you but will be glad to tell you what's wrong with anything you ask about"

And that's how my dad stopped asking me what to buy and decided a caddy STS too old to pass emissions and too new to not have to, with a slipping trans, rusted brake lines, and a northstar that will probably need the head studs done soon was a great loving idea and proudly told me what he bought the next time he saw me! :eng99:

This is pretty much where I'm at as well. I'll happily tell them all the reasons why they shouldn't buy a car but I'm not going to tell them what I think they should buy, and if they ignore my recommendations against a certain car and buy it anyway I'll laugh in their face when it breaks.

Wasabi the J
Jan 23, 2008

MOM WAS RIGHT
As an amateur wrencher, and a person with a calculator, it is absolutely infuriating to try and show that $1200 in repairs over the course of three years still comes out less than a car payment.

I still get professional help when I'm in over my head, but drat it's like arguing with a brick wall.

Meanwhile the extra costs of warranty, deductibles, insurance rates, and dealership fees is somehow completely ignored by my parents.

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.
Oh yeah I forgot to mention that AWD or 4wd for winter was on their list of features they wanted. Guess what doesn't have that? STSes.

The previous thing he'd been looking at was a 2006 Outback, after I told him that some subarus with an EJ251 (... not an 06 outback, IIRC those have harder to find motors, and are still subject to emissions anyways, but too old to have a warranty) are easy to find junkyard motors for and only need the engine out occsaionally and a family friend was looking to offload a reasonable condition one with no rusted subframes. He took that to mean "all subarus are good you should buy a subaru" until I told him he seriously misheard me. I'm not sure if he is better off with what he got or not but at least it's very much NOT something he can blame on my advise, or rather what he heard of my advise.

xzzy
Mar 5, 2009

When asked I tell people to buy the car with a cupholder that can conveniently hold 7-11's biggest cup and temperature/radio controls you can manipulate with gloves on. If they're thinking of going into luxury car territory I tell them to check on the cost of new tires too, but other than that everything goes in one ear and out the other, so why try to give them good info. :shrug:

cursedshitbox
May 20, 2012

Your rear-end wont survive my hammering.



Fun Shoe
The only dealership I'll ever trust is the junkyard. Same gamble at 1/4 the cost.

BlackMK4
Aug 23, 2006

wat.
Megamarm

The Door Frame posted:

I'd say that counts as 1 combined problem. The really big problem has been repeatedly talking her out of buying a 2017 Toyota Camry while she works part time and still has a year and a half left for her degree :bang:
"But if I get a 60 month loan, it'll only be $230 a month, it'll be worth it just to be in a new car." It's only taken 5 months, but I have convinced her to look at cars in the ~$4,000 price range instead of ~$18,000...

I had one of those. It cost me a year old 2009 Kawasaki ZX6R, my credit record, a dog, and divorce fees.

Queen_Combat
Jan 15, 2011

BlackMK4 posted:

I had one of those. It cost me a year old 2009 Kawasaki ZX6R, my credit record, a dog, and divorce fees.

No dog = no deal :colbert:

PCOS Bill
May 12, 2013

by FactsAreUseless
I love it when family members ask me for car buying advice. I get to waste an hour taking their wants and needs plus their budget into account, searching local ads near them if they aren't local, and giving them 5-6 cars that would be ideal for their purpose and within their budget that aren't likely to break down on them if they're remotely in as good of shape as their ads and photos suggest.

I never know what scrapyard fodder they're going to buy instead, but it's always entertaining to hear why I was wrong and what they bought was better! They got such a good deal and the dealer was so willing to work with them and they got it at such a good price! (Repeat in six months when their "Great Deal" dies/falls apart/unibody splits into distinct pieces and have to stop driving it because their car is breaking in half. That one was a Saturn, I didn't know a Saturn could fall apart that badly)

GnarlyCharlie4u
Sep 23, 2007

I have an unhealthy obsession with motorcycles.

Proof
Automotive Insanity > Horrible Mechanical Failures:"WHY WOULD YOU FINANCE A DEPRECIATING ASSET?"

Uthor
Jul 9, 2006

Gummy Bear Heaven ... It's where I go when the world is too mean.

Wasabi the J posted:

As an amateur wrencher, and a person with a calculator, it is absolutely infuriating to try and show that $1200 in repairs over the course of three years still comes out less than a car payment.

My VW (shockingly) developed electrical gremlins once it hit 100k on the odo. My mom keeps asking me why I don't buy a brand new car with a warranty instead of paying on average $800/year on repairs (which included a $400 timing belt replacement and $300 on new wheels to replace my bent up ones).

The Door Frame
Dec 5, 2011

I don't know man everytime I go to the gym here there are like two huge dudes with raging high and tights snorting Nitro-tech off of each other's rock hard abs.
poo poo, I didn't realize that it was such a universal problem. The most frustrating thing is trying to convince someone to get rid of their shitbox car, they bought it and put so much money in that they can't imagine dumping the car. Arguing against the sunk cost fallacy is so much fun that I've entirely given up. "Family mechanic" is almost as bad as "family tech support". At least with fixing cars, I can usually make them leave me alone by asking them to buy the parts before I put any time in, instead of having to come up with convoluted excuses for not fixing their virus ridden computer again.

PCOS Bill posted:

I love it when family members ask me for car buying advice. I get to waste an hour taking their wants and needs plus their budget into account, searching local ads near them if they aren't local, and giving them 5-6 cars that would be ideal for their purpose and within their budget that aren't likely to break down on them if they're remotely in as good of shape as their ads and photos suggest.

I never know what scrapyard fodder they're going to buy instead, but it's always entertaining to hear why I was wrong and what they bought was better! They got such a good deal and the dealer was so willing to work with them and they got it at such a good price! (Repeat in six months when their "Great Deal" dies/falls apart/unibody splits into distinct pieces and have to stop driving it because their car is breaking in half. That one was a Saturn, I didn't know a Saturn could fall apart that badly)

Aren't Saturns mostly plastic, how did one rust apart?

SUSE Creamcheese
Apr 11, 2007
I stopped giving my family car advice a couple years ago after my aunt bought my cousin a ~2004 Forester. It was in great shape and they knew its full history since it had been owned by a family friend. They still got a PPI, and shockingly enough the headgaskets were leaking, but they blew off the dealer and me because it only had 65K on the odo and "cars that new don't have headgasket problems!" :byodame:

They got 20K miles out of it somehow before the engine overheated badly enough to lunch itself, and my aunt traded it in on a new Fusion.

PCOS Bill
May 12, 2013

by FactsAreUseless

The Door Frame posted:




Aren't Saturns mostly plastic, how did one rust apart?

Just the body panels. Although in retrospect it may have been their Buick that did that. They've had so many.

The Door Frame
Dec 5, 2011

I don't know man everytime I go to the gym here there are like two huge dudes with raging high and tights snorting Nitro-tech off of each other's rock hard abs.

PCOS Bill posted:

Just the body panels. Although in retrospect it may have been their Buick that did that. They've had so many.

Eh, maybe the lack of sacrificial metal in the body paneling let rust take structural components faster? Although I definitely buy a Buick making GBS threads the bed like that, back in maybe 1998, my friend's family had a late 80's/early 90's Buick wagon that we all called "Old Rusty" because we could see through the sides of the trunk and pull off chunks of the car with our tiny, ~5 year old hands

jacteh
Jul 10, 2007
.

quote:

Poorly secured battery chat

What's the worst that could happen?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ9WcHPLTg0

kastein
Aug 31, 2011

Moderator at http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/and soon to be mod of AI. MAKE AI GREAT AGAIN. Motronic for VP.

The Door Frame posted:

Eh, maybe the lack of sacrificial metal in the body paneling let rust take structural components faster? Although I definitely buy a Buick making GBS threads the bed like that, back in maybe 1998, my friend's family had a late 80's/early 90's Buick wagon that we all called "Old Rusty" because we could see through the sides of the trunk and pull off chunks of the car with our tiny, ~5 year old hands

They rust at the same rate, it is just hidden from normal people's eyes because after all the body has no rust... until you crawl under it (who does that before buying a car? Weirdos I guess) and see there is nothing left.

InitialDave
Jun 14, 2007

I Want To Believe.

kastein posted:

They rust at the same rate, it is just hidden from normal people's eyes because after all the body has no rust... until you crawl under it (who does that before buying a car? Weirdos I guess) and see there is nothing left.
Same problem with Land Rovers, Lotuses, TVRs and so on.

beep-beep car is go
Apr 11, 2005

I can just eyeball this, right?



Re: family asking for car recommendations, I actually would just stay "Mid 90s Corolla or Civic" over and over again until they either stopped asking or bought one.

mobby_6kl
Aug 9, 2009

^^^
That's what I say too for anyone concerned with TCO, and I've never owned either of those. Otherwise go ahead and buy your Audi or Jaguar and leave enough for maintenance.



The right headlight has been giving me some trouble, let's try to fix it:



So that's good, on the downside, it will sometimes also go out when driving over a bump :doh:

Sten Freak
Sep 10, 2008

Despite all of these shortcomings, the Sten still has a long track record of shooting people right in the face.
College Slice

mobby_6kl posted:

That's what I say too for anyone concerned with TCO, and I've never owned either of those. Otherwise go ahead and buy your Audi or Jaguar and leave enough for maintenance.
Uncanny. A friend of my wife moved to Denver from NYC where she grew up. She'd never owned a car in her life and my wife asked if I'd help her. She said she wanted something reliable and economical. She sent some links over for cars that she liked. The first email had a ~6 year old twin turbo Audi and a Jaguar in it. Long story short is that it ended successfully as she purchased a used Acura coupe with a clean record and had the timing belt, brakes and some other stuff done by the seller as part of the deal.

Also she knew I liked guns and as a thanks bought me some cool bullet cuff links.

redgubbinz
May 1, 2007


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Kia Soul Enthusias
May 9, 2004

zoom-zoom
Toilet Rascal

mobby_6kl posted:

^^^
That's what I say too for anyone concerned with TCO, and I've never owned either of those. Otherwise go ahead and buy your Audi or Jaguar and leave enough for maintenance.



The right headlight has been giving me some trouble, let's try to fix it:



So that's good, on the downside, it will sometimes also go out when driving over a bump :doh:

Corrosion on the connector? One of my Subarus did that. The pigtail harness was replaceable.

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