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Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

Sigma X posted:

"rude"? Why, because you're doing away with the huge markup every single repair shop adds on to their parts?

Would you bring your own food to a restaurant?

If you go to a shop and get your rotors replaced, and one of those rotors has a casting defect and it cracks after a week, the shop will take care of it and work with their supplier to make it right. If you bring in your own rotors that you got for $$CHEAP$$ on eBay that are made of the cheapest baby-formula-grade pressed lead possible and the shop installs them, the shop owner is going to have to put up with your angry Yelp tirade when something inevitably breaks and you blame them.

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Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

Sigma X posted:

You didn't address my issue about 200% markup mechanic parts prices. When a shop charges $150/hr for labor and the literally-exact-same part I order on Rockauto for $82 costs $414 at a mechanic (EDIT: This is not hyperbole, or hypothetical), my response is usually something like "go gently caress yourself, guy". Now THAT'S rude. When I take my car to the shop, it's to pay for expertise of the mechanic. And I don't know what you're talking about for a mechanic's "warranty", because I've never seen the Bobby McGee repair shop warranty amount to anything but a pile of cheap words.

Eh, whatev dude. I thought Dr.Pain's thread was pretty informative w/r/t bringing your own parts to the mechanic, but what you do with your favorite shop is your business.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

Parts Kit posted:

Has anyone here tried making a car computer / media center with a raspberry pi as the main bit? I was mulling that over the other day.

It seems some people have already done this too.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Raspberry-Pi-Touch-Screen-Car-Computer/

We've got a Raspberry Pi at the hackerspace that boots automatically and displays information for the bus stop outside. It works pretty well. All you'd need is a small touchscreen monitor, an aux jack for your stereo, and an SD card with your favorite flavor of linux on it.

Don't cheap out on the SD card, because the RPI doesn't have any internal storage. If you can find one, get a microSD card and a low profile SD adaptor designed for the RPI, so you don't have anything sticking out the side.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

As long as you're not actively writing to disk, you should be able to just cut power no problem.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

The slightly smaller sidewall will make your ride slightly harsher, your speedometer will read slightly high, and you'll lose that hellaflush cred.

In other words, it'll be fine. Go for it.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

Kilersquirrel posted:

Were you asking me, or him?

Yeah, my local parts stores have enamel, but just in the boring flat black and Chevy orange matte colors. Great for toolboxes, not so great when you want to make your machine look pretty.

I've never heard of powder coating an engine though, I would have assumed there could be big issues with the risk of some powder getting through the masking and setting inside an oil passage or something.

This is all for a café racer, so I'm already getting the frame bead-blasted and recoated. Depending on the rates and colors/finishes I can get around here, I may look into a powder coat for the block and head too. I'm all about one-stop shopping when it comes to projects.

Air cooled? If so, I imagine you'll want to leave the cooling fins unpainted.

Feel free to correct me if I'm off-base about this.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

Astonishing Wang posted:

The Tribute was the same as the Ford Escape, right? There are a ton of those on the road still, not that that means much I guess.

Explorer, if I recall correctly.

e. Nope, I think you're right.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

VelociBacon posted:

$1000 supra made from 2 supras and a grand national

I want to know more about this supra. What Grand National parts did it have?

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

It's typical for a differential to not have a drain hole. You remove the differential cover to drain it, replace the gasket, and then fill through the fill hole.

The genesis has a drain hole. On the other hand, if they opened the diff up to inspect it, they'll want to replace the gasket anyway.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

This is barely related, but I used to ride a motorcycle that had a 7 gallon tank, and the difference between full and empty was amazing. It was to the point where, if I was just going to be riding around town, I'd only bother filling it half way.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

22 Eargesplitten posted:

Am I right in thinking cars generally get better mileage at lower elevations? I'm thinking more oxygen, more complete combustion, more power for the fuel, further distance for a given amount of fuel. Assuming you don't have it tuned specifically for high elevation.

I'm reasonably sure that, within some sane altitude range, your O2 sensor will tell your ECU how to compensate for the amount of available oxygen per combustion cycle.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

22 Eargesplitten posted:

What does sane mean? 0-5000? 0-9000?

"Sane" meaning that a modern ECU will adjust the amount of gasoline injected into the cylinder for a given mass of air at a given throttle position and engine speed based on analysis of the exhaust gasses, within the limits of the ECU, fuel pump, and injectors. In a properly engineered and tuned vehicle, that should work from - a few hundred to + a few thousand feet above sea level, at most reasonable outside temperatures, in most reasonable weather conditions.

Basically, you're not going to have to re-jet your carburetors to cross the Rockies.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

Winszton posted:

Car: 1986 Volvo 240 DL (with just 60k miles! Could probably drive this for the first 30 years of my driving life..)


Issue 1: Driver side front headlight does not work. What is the cheapest way to diagnose the problem and get it fixed? Is there somewhere I can go for instructions on figuring out if it is just the bulb that's out?
If it is a bulb, do I order it online and put it in?
Should I just go to Auto Zone or somewhere similar and have them take a look, or will the try to rip me off?
I live in Dallas so there are plenty of auto repair shops and whatever else.

Issue 2: one of the little flimsy panels that covers a light on the back broke off. Can I pass inspection with this broken off? The bulb still functions perfectly.


(and yes I am indeed ashamed for loving cars but knowing nothing about the easily-fixable one I drive)

It looks like your car uses an H3 bulb. Those are cheap enough that you can just throw parts at it. You can go to Auto Zone, get them to look up the bulb (there might be a reference book in the headlight aisle), and pop it in there.
It looks like this video applies to you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSBu6OqurdI

In the US, you will almost certainly pass inspection without the flimsy panel.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

DreadLlama posted:

I need to know about how to clean carburetors.

A 24cc 2-stroke attached to a weed whacker idles but does not rev. Googling informs me that carburetors have a high-speed jet, which is likely clogged.

I put SeaFoam through it. That helped with the idle but not the high speed. I've been told of SeaFoam, "If it doesn't work, use more" - but an entire can did not resolve the issue. (It idles well though).


I don't want to take apart the carb if I don't have to, and if I have to, I don't want to take it apart any more than I have to. (Last time I took apart something small and delicate a spring flew away somewhere and now the thing that the spring was supposed to go back inside of doesn't work anymore). I'd rather leave the carb soaking in a bucket of something for a week than take it apart.

Canadian Tire advertises carburator cleaners. Would they just further improve the idle or would putting them in an engine stand a better chance of cleaning the jet out than SeaFoam would?

Here's what I would do:

If you look at the carburetor, it should look like it has a bowl on the bottom with a little drain maybe. Drain the carburetor, then flip the whole thing upside down so the bowl is on the top. Remove the bowl. You should see a couple of (probably brass?) tubes going into the main body of the carburetor. These are the jets. Remove the bigger of the two (the main jet), take a thin copper wire, and poke it all the way through. If you have some carburetor cleaner, let the main jet soak in it for a while.

That should keep you from having to disassemble too many things. Post pictures if you run into anything confusing; I'm assuming all carburetors are different, and I really only have experience with motorcycle carburetors.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

Heck, I can still click my Jeep on and off a few times, and my odometer will display any codes.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

Parts Kit posted:

Is that a length of bare steel cable being used as a wire on the right hand terminal? :psyduck:

Grounding strap?


1st Edition ADandD posted:

Might be too esoteric for the stupid questions thread but here goes. 1984 300zx, started as an NA and is now a turbo. E4N71B auto tranny, needs vacuum for the modulator. My setup builds boost much faster than the stock turbo version. I put a vacuum check valve in the line and that's eliminated most of the exceedingly late hard shifts under any major load, except when I am hanging between like 2 in/Hg and 1 or 2 PSI boost. When that happens, the tranny basically just fumbles for a gear. I can drive around it by backing off the throttle a little if I'm not in a hurry or flooring it and engaging the kickdown if I am, but I figure there must have been a stock solution. Unfortunately, the car's service manual had nothing on it. Is there something obvious I am missing here?

Spergelord? Is that you?

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

It could be one of your TPMS sensors is out of batteries, just coincidentally. Might want to check and see what the warning light for that is.

If your tire actually _is_ losing air, though, that's indicative of a problem. Either the tire has a small puncture, it's mounted improperly, or your valve stem is leaking.

Out of curiosity, do you have a valve stem cap installed? If not, get a replacement. They do a lot toward helping keep the air in your tires.

There is no "liner" (inner tube) on modern cars, so if the tire is actually bad, you'll need to replace it. Depending on what kind of car you have, it might be prudent to replace a pair, or replace all four. How old are the tires that are on there?

Get some soapy water and smear it all over where the tire meets the wheel, and all over the valve stem. Look for bubbles.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

Elmnt80 posted:

A shot of clear plastidip might also do the trick?

That's a thing? gently caress me.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

martinlutherbling posted:

Not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but I couldn't find a thread that looked more appropriate. What do you guys think about radar detectors? I've gathered that cheaping out is a bad move, and have decided on the Escort Passport 8500. Seems like a high quality unit and its $225 on Amazon so decently cheap too.
I live in VT and see a good mix of highway, suburban/commercial back roads and very rural back roads, if that makes a difference.
Anyway, just wondering if you guys think buying a radar detector is worth it?

It depends on how you drive. I have an Escort of some sort kicking around, and it probably helped me avoid a couple of tickets back when I used to drive fast. I don't use it any more, but I'd probably put it or a V1 in a fast car if I owned one.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

martinlutherbling posted:

Unless I'm going through residential neighborhoods, school zones or work zones, chances are I'm over the speed limit. It's my first fast car in 11 years of driving (Saab 92x) and it's fun to get on it, especially on twisty back roads.

The real value of a radar detector is on the interstate. It goes off, you slow down to a reasonable speed and start scanning ahead, then you see the cop around the next bend or over the next hill. Rural highways usually aren't heavily-enough travelled to warrant speed traps except for the little towns where the speed limit drops from 55 to 25 over a half a mile. In the city, there are so many false positives that muting the thing becomes a chore.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

Yeah, I got used to hitting the mute button pretty heavily. It got to the point where I wouldn't bother taking the detector out of my center console unless I was going to get on the highway.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

Koppite posted:

First time used car buyer.

Question on third party warranty companies. Any to stay away from? Any to look for?

Stay away from: all

Look for: a rainy day fund

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

My Heep (2002 Jeep Wrangler four point oh) started making a dull thud from the front left when I turn the steering wheel. It made that sound whether I was stopped or moving slowly. I only really noticed it in the grocery store parking lot last night. What should I inspect?

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

Wait, what's the difference between pinging and knocking?

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

martinlutherbling posted:

Looking at getting some summer tires (for the spring). Does anybody have experience with Sumitomo HTR Z III's? They're some of the cheapest on Tire Rack but have tons of positive reviews with almost no negative feedback. I know tires aren't something you want to cheap out on it but it seems like these are just a legit good value. Car is an 05 92x Aero if that makes a difference.

I used to daily drive and autocross on Sumitomo HTR Z IIs, I think. They're great tires for the price. I managed to go through about a set a year due to road hazards, though.


SlayVus posted:

How much would I be looking at to get a part fabricated? I only ask in interest because I just paid $100 to replace a snapped alternator bracket in a 96 jeep grand Cherokee.

By a professional machinist, paying shop rates? Probably a few hundred for that part, at least. Maybe *maybe* you could have found someone to weld up your existing alternator bracket, but getting it perfectly straight would still be a pain in the butt.

If you have a buddy who works in a machine shop who has some free time, you could maybe get it done for $50 + a case of beer.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

Fixit posted:

This is a question worthy of stupidity.

I own a 2004 Ford Expedition Eddie Bauer 2WD and need to get some new tires on it. Have done my shopping around online and getting quotes and am still at a loss. In person information conflicts with online information, go figure, and it has gotten to the point where the car is no longer safe to drive without new tires.

My question is, what tire brand is best suited for wet conditions and driving on the highway? Living in the northwest they need to deal well with wet conditions. About 95% of driving is down on the highway, the rest is on the rare occasion we go camping. The smoother the ride the better, but not going to make or break a great deal.

We have been looking at Costco, because price and convenience, and the two tires brands they have to offer are Bridgestone and Michelin. Also, I guess its kinda important, would like to stay below $700 for 4 tires.

I poked through what Costco recommends for your car, and I'd go for the Bridgestone Dueler H/L Alenza Plus tires. They get good ratings on TireRack, and they come in under your budget. https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tire...NPOWL&tab=Sizes

http://tires2.costco.com/product.aspx?ItemNo=849332&SearchID=cf2a2012-d5ea-4e74-b6e0-5668cecdcebf

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

Fixit posted:

AH! Tirerack, completely forgot about that website. Doing a quick search on there are these Firestone tires any good?

Also thanks for the recommendation. For some reason I don't see those on my search on Costco but like the ratings and price. Is 8.8 points for wet traction pretty standard or really good?

The tires currently on my truck get an 8.7, and if I really hammer the throttle through a turn in the wet I can make the back end drift. If you're not driving like a dong, it should be calm and no surprises.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

tater_salad posted:

Let me say this.. my minivan can fit a 42" riding mower in it with the seats down and fronts taken out.

My last time hauling I fit the following. 3 large totes 5 large cardboard boxes, 6 dining room chairs, a small table saw bolted to a stand.

The v6 has enough juice to make it fun to drive.

The back of my parents' minivan played host to a number of romantic encounters during high school. I'd removed the back seats because "I needed to move some plywood". KING BONG, do your children a favor and let them drive the old minivan when they're in high school.

Alternatively, a Tesla when properly optioned can seat seven.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

M42 posted:

I have a towing question. I have an 08 honda civic (4 door). I'd like to tow my bike to track days, but bike + trailer is 1000lb, which is exactly the towing capacity for the car. I live in an apartment with a public lot, so I can't own an ultralight trailer, basically only rent the ones from uhaul.

So my idiot clueless question is, how bad is it to tow at capacity? Will it wreck my suspension/transmission? Are there any options besides buying a car with a better tow rating?

American car specifications are known for under-rating towing capacity. Keep it slow and you'll be fine. Some Home Depots have the 5' x 8' trailers with surge brakes; if you can, get one of those. Also get a professionally fitted trailer hitch, biggest you can, with a 2" ball.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

M42 posted:

Bit late, but thanks! I hate asking this question since the range is so wide, but is there a ballpark for the cost of the install + wiring setup?

I think I spent about $300 putting a hitch on my Outback a few years back.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

eddiewalker posted:

I just bought a '15 Mazda3. I still have a good set of snow tires on steel wheels from my '07 Mazda6. I'm trying to figure out if they'll fit on the new car, or if I should just craigslist them.

Tirerack says both cars use the same size tires, and the site offers 16" steel wheels that look identical in every measurement except for offset. The 16x6.5 wheels I own from the old car say, "Offset: 55mm" but Tirerack recommends I buy 16x6.5 wheels with "Offset: +42mm" for the new car.

Can I use my old wheels/tires?

Try installing them. If they fit, they fit.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

Enourmo posted:

03 mazdaspeed protégé doesn't wanna crank if it's been parked hot for 5-20 minutes. Starts fine cold, or immediately after shutoff, but within that window it'll groan one cylinder past compression then grind to a halt.

Battery tests good, though that's with the parts store handheld tester. I'll take it to a shop next chance I get and have them test it proper, but does this sounds like a battery, or is there some heat soak issue that could cause behavior like this? It's not just a dying starter, as it starts fine with a jump.

Vapor lock? It's been a while since I owned a MSP, but I could see one being chuckle-hosed hard enough to suffer from that.

How much time passed between trying to start it and trying to start it with a jump? Enough that the engine would have had time to cool a bit?

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

Enourmo posted:

Like, no crank, hook up cables, starts fine with jump seconds later. And I doubt it's vapor lock, usually that makes a car crank fine but wont catch.

Update: happened again this morning, with a cold engine. As an added bonus, it now dies the second I so much as breathe on the gas pedal; I ended up having to take my mom's car to class for the day. Looks like I'm replacing the battery, and potentially deeper issues.

Lol Mazdaspeed Protege. The car only an enthusiast could love. I still miss mine

You're right about the vapor lock thing. I was barking up the wrong tree. It's probably your battery. Might have chooched your alternator too, at this point.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

scuz posted:

Like with one of these? 300 smackeroos seems steep but if there's no other way to make the car a bit more predictable I guess I'd consider it.

"The Sprint Booster Drive-by-Wire Throttle Delay Eliminator is an electronic device that mounts behind the accelerator pedal, and its simple installation won't affect your vehicle's electronic system. Sprint Booster eliminates the delay of an electronic throttle (drive-by-wire)."

How? I really doubt these are anything more than snake oil.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

antitroll posted:

I'm thinking about buying a salvage car for spare parts for my current daily driver (headlight assembly, seats, headlight autoleveling sensor, etc) and to practice wrenching on. Good idea / bad idea? I'm avoiding anything with flood damage.

If you have the money and the space, it's not the worst idea.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

Shere posted:

I'm not an expert, but the fact that you have to shimmy it up says to me that the regulator is out of whack.

Do hand-cranked windows even have regulators?

Something's jammed or broken. Take the door apart, poke around, take pictures, and see what you can figure out.

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

Oh, okay. I always took "regulator" to be an unnecessary word for "motor". I learned something!

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

Mind_Taker posted:

Where is the best place to get a trailer hitch installed (class I for a bike rack)? I looked at U-Haul and the internet is telling me they mostly do a good job and their price is better than a dealership, but I wasn't sure if there was a better option (other than DIY which I am not interested in doing).

Do a quick internet search for "trailer hitch installation" in your area. There are places that specialize in only that. I went that route for the hitch in my Outback, and was quite pleased.

MomJeans420 posted:

I need to do my rotors and this is my first car where they've been held on with brass screws. Of course one screw came out ok, and the head on the other instantly started to strip. I don't think any of my drill bits will work for drilling it out, so I need to either buy a manual impact driver, or the appropriate bits. The head isn't completely stripped, think there's a chance an impact driver will work? I may just buy both tools, as I'm sure they'll be useful to have in the future. What are the best bits for drilling out a screw?


Unrelated - my brother has a GMC Arcadia and recently had to change the battery. He said he had to use a Torx bit to remove an interior panel on the passenger side to get access to the battery - WTF? Is this common now on newer cars?

Also, brass is a very soft metal. Just about any drill bit will be fine. But try hammering in a regular screwdriver first, then perhaps the impact.

It's becoming increasingly common to put the battery on the interior or in the trunk in newer cars.

Safety Dance fucked around with this message at 17:30 on Oct 7, 2015

Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

Abu Dave posted:

Even in that video they're driving on plowed snow; I would be driving on unplowed snow.

Where will you be living? What will you be doing? How often will snow plows come by?

It sounds like your best bet will be a Red Mazda Miata with snow tires, of course.


e. Also, what kind of budget are you looking at?

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Safety Dance
Sep 10, 2007

Five degrees to starboard!

gnarlyhotep posted:

I would really like to get a car project going (esp a manual trans) but I am p much clueless about working on cars. I can drive a standard like a beast but working on it, heh, I'm like an idiot.

Is there a thread in here that helps beginners work on cars?

If you can find a rust free old school VW Beetle, that might be a good first project car. They're intensely simple.

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