Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Lutha Mahtin posted:

I have a 1994 Chevy S-10 pickup. Last week it started doing this:

Either the blower motor, or the fan blade attached to it, is failing. Hopefully it's not Volvo 240 levels of hell to get to it!

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Seeing as it's a tire that seems to be more often used on smaller cars (going off of the sizes and reviews on Tirerack), I'd wager it's just not going to live anywhere near 85k miles under a fullsize truck.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Load ratings mean it won't blow up or be dangerous with that weight, but it doesn't mean it was built to last 85000 miles working that hard. From Kumho's own site for the KR21:



A lot of it can be driving style, too. My mom had a '97 C1500 Suburban (so your truck, but even heavier) and usually ran the Michelin LTX on it. That thing got caned everywhere it went and would shred the tires in about 20k miles.

Personally I don't sweat tire life in terms of mileage too much. Unless you're logging 30k+ miles per year, a tire that actually makes it to 85,000 miles is going to be awfully old and rock loving hard by then, and you would probably want to replace them even without hitting the wear bars.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





cr0y posted:

I am mainly trying to power a big shop fa n as the venue is a big field in Tennessee in June. Lights and speakers will probably be involved as well. I might just use a couple normal batteries wired in parallel. Generators arent appreciated due to the close proximity of everyone at the festival.

Edit: is there anything close to the hondas in terms of noise?

One of my uncles has a Yamaha inverter generator that is drat near silent, quite small, and puts out very clean power. Only problem is last I looked it was over $1k and that's for a ~2kW model.

Perhaps batteries + solar panel?

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Motronic posted:

Honda EU2000i most likely. Those are absolutely amazing generators, and you can get a cable to sync two of them together for a nearly silent 4k.

In this case you absolutely get what you are paying for.

I could swear it's a Yamaha, but GIS says those are all blue and the generator in question is red. So yeah, probably a Honda.

We used it a few times to power my wife's photo flashes when the lipo+inverter box I built her was not going to provide enough runtime.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Buy a cheap cigarette lighter power adapter, and forget the factory USB port exists. Honda's Bluetooth and USB integration is pretty poor anyway.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Elendil004 posted:



I'm still kinda pissed that the Hondalink app is only for iOS because that would solve all my problems

Won't fix the ~2sec lag in the Bluetooth subsystem, though. It makes OK Google / Siri completely broken.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





C-Euro posted:

We exchanged info and today he's offering me $4-500 of his own money to fix it when he gets paid in a few weeks, which is what my deductible through my insurance company would be anyway.

Why would you go through your insurance? You aren't at fault, your out of pocket should be $0 either way here. Go through their insurance and be done with it, this is why everyone is supposed to have liability coverage.

It may be because the one situation I had like this (uninsured driving a 2014 Kia, :wtf: ) I got screwed. They started ducking my calls almost right away and I didn't have enough actual information to serve a civil suit to force the issue.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





literally this big posted:

Those prices should include everything from parts to labor. Normally I'd look into DIYing it, but I've got a big drive ahead of me on Monday and I need to get this done ASAP. So long at $210 seems reasonable I'll be going ahead with it. Thanks!

The trickiest thing with these places is whether or not they stand by their work, and whether the work is any good to begin with. The parts they're going to use are almost certainly the same - Metra, Scosche, or one of the many Chinese knockoffs of the above - so it really comes down to if they're competent enough with a crimper to not pinch their dick in the drat thing.

It really is very, very easy to swap a head unit.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





At $1500 it's hard to hate much of anything if it reliably gets you from A to B and back. At $1500 plus six weeks to decide if you actually like it? Really, really hard to say no to that if the Tribute is at all what you're looking for.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





spog posted:

What was that whooshing sound above my head?

Ah. Thank you.

Couldn't remember the greatest SUV in the world.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





A Saucy Bratwurst posted:

If i take the radiator cap off and start the car and a tonne of coolant comes out, thats a headgasket isnt it? Car doesnt overheat though, if anything it runs a little cold.

05 wrx.

The symptoms certainly point at it. I'd grab a tester and see if you get any combustion products in it.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Spazz posted:

The more I think about it, that battery may have been dying for a while. Sometimes it would be slow to start, like hearing the starter "skipping" so to speak. Good news is swapping an alternator isn't too hard from what I saw so it's a job I can do at home. Which maintenance book do you all suggest I grab? I'm sick of paying someone else to do work I can do myself and I'm about due to replace my rotors and brake pads.

Honestly, everything on the '98+ Ranger is hilariously well documented on at least one forum or YouTube video somewhere. I never bought a manual. The few times I needed more than the general internet had to offer, I used Autozone's free online manuals.

Most everything on that truck is pretty drat basic and easy to work on, so you won't have much trouble if you have any mechanical aptitude at all. Not accounting for rust, of course.

As an aside, how are your battery cables? Mine were in awful shape and if I hadn't been so loving cheap / lazy, they really should have been replaced. I just kept making do with aftermarket terminals on the crusty old cable.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





There is a Car Audio Megathread in case you want to sort through more info.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Santheb posted:

Edit: the mechanic that usually helps me out came by today and said it wasn't the alternator because the car didn't shut off when I had it running and he pulled off the negative terminal.

That doesn't really tell you as much as it used to, but it is pretty likely that the alternator is doing its job if the vehicle isn't stalling out randomly due to lack of juice. However, even if it was, modern electrical systems depend on the battery to work properly - I've seen dead batteries lead a car to stall even with a working alternator.

The only other real alternatives are going to be:
*Starter going bad - unlikely if it works when you get a jump, but not impossible
*Neutral safety switch - when it fails to start, does it make any noise at all? If it doesn't even so much as 'click', try shifting from P to N and starting.
*Battery cables - most likely behind the battery itself.

tuyop posted:

How does someone become a better driver?

I'm not really sure how I got here, but I've never hit anyone and I have a pretty good driving record. However, my wife basically drives our car into something once a month and it's becoming very expensive and I worry a lot that she's going to die or hurt someone with the car. She wants to improve and feels bad about her driving, but what do we even do? Do race schools help with regular road driving? At this point the $600+ price tag would almost be a worthwhile investment if it works.

Most race schools offer a defensive driving class that focuses less on "nailing the apex" and more on "how not to be an idiot behind the wheel". I took this class at Bondurant (thanks to a gift certificate) and while they discuss a bit of racecraft here and there, the majority of it is trying to get you used to where you should be looking while driving (a lot further ahead than your front bumper) as well as how capable a car is (i.e. how to swerve properly instead of just slamming on the brakes).

IOwnCalculus fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Jun 18, 2015

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





FlyingCowOfDoom posted:

gently caress thats the name of the place, I was trying to remember all the old commercials I had seen but couldnt so was just contacting local shops, thank you!! Never had to get paint work done before so when he showed me that paper with 3k on it my jaw loving dropped.

Be forewarned, the quality of the paint work is going to be in line with the minimal money you are putting into it (i.e. absolute poo poo). If you put in a lot of labor yourself, you can get it up to "decent" - case in point:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTZyhbHmcIs&t=106s

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





$5000 includes labor, I hope, and probably also a healthy "gently caress you for making me work on a Saturn" tax.

If you magically managed to have a chain that got just sloppy enough that it jumped a few teeth, that could explain the low compression across the board. But unless you're willing to dive deep into that engine to second-guess the mechanic, I would take 30-60 PSI compression readings as a very big sign that it's time to park that car. $5k and some haggling should be able to get you a decent example of a 2003-2007 Accord, which would be better in just about every way.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Yeah, people get seriously miffed at the idea of spending ~30 cents more per gallon for a higher compression engine.

It's such a marketing thing that Ford has gone so far as to rate most (all?) of the Ecoboosts on 87 octane so that they can advertise them as running on regular gas. They make more power on 91, but it lets them sell to the idiots who think anything that needs more than 87 octane must be wasting money.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





What car is it?

Sounds like a clutch hydraulics / linkage problem.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Looks like it has a hydraulic clutch with an external slave cylinder, which is very good for you in terms of labor costs. Check fluid levels first - it might share the brake fluid reservoir, or it might have its own. Either way, make sure it has enough fluid, and if so, see if perhaps pumping the clutch makes it easier to shift. If you want to crawl around a bit, inspect both the master and slave cylinders for any leakage or seepage, and if corrosion is a concern, check the hard line between the two for leaks.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





I'm guessing you're going to take it into a shop anyway, but unless there's an unrelated EGR problem happening at the same time as a transmission problem, it's extremely likely that the judgement on "should I replace the car or fix it" will be solidly in the fix it zone. A Y2K Accord, especially with a four cylinder like yours, is a solid car. Honda's automatics weren't the best around then but they still did their job just fine as long as it wasn't a V6 too.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





It's possible the lifter is clacking because you have a trashed cam lobe. No way to know for sure until you break into the engine.

Unless the 3800 is some special beast, the lifter/roller is a single unit. If the lifter is all it is, you should be able to pull it and swap in another one if you just want to get it going. Could also be a broken rocker arm, broken valvespring, bent pushrod...

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Hood opening tool:



Hood closing tool:

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





I'll second kastein on suspension components. I borrowed my mom's Trailblazer for a road trip once, and noted that randomly while parking it would feel like the power steering was completely cutting out. I drove it home (some 800mi round trip) and told her to have her shop check the power steering.

I never did find out whether it was a balljoint or tie rod, but it definitely wasn't a hydraulic failure. About poo poo myself when I heard that.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Godholio posted:

Huh. Yeah, never seen that before. Interesting. That provides input for the ABS? Traction control?

Yeah, it's not that uncommon. Google "three channel abs", the idea is to keep from locking the whole axle up and making the car spin.

My Ranger only had rear ABS and probably only had a single sender for the rear axle too. With just a single pump it's not like it could only release the pressure on one rear wheel.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Check around, you might have another port that isn't hot at all times - my Jeep has two +12V power points in the center console. One is only hot with the key on, the other is hot at all times.

If you aren't that lucky, you can always modify one to be ignition-controlled. I did this on my Ranger where both were hot at all times. The safest way to do it is to use a relay:



Cut the +12V wire leading to the accessory socket you want to modify, connect the end from the car to pin 30, connect the end from the socket to pin 87. Use an add-a-fuse with a small fuse in it and install it in your fuseblock on a circuit that is only hot when the key is on. Run a wire from the add-a-fuse to pin 86, run a wire from pin 85 to a good ground. Congrats, your socket will now only work when the key is on, and you only had to modify one factory wire to do so (which you can always just crimp back together if you want to undo this). Also, the relay is rated to handle more power than the accessory socket, so you aren't limiting your options there, and the additional load of the relay on whatever switched circuit you add it to is inconsequential.

If you have an aftermarket headunit, you can even skip the add-a-fuse and use something like the amplifier turn-on output from it to switch the relay on.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





MoosetheMooche posted:

Unfortunately all 3 ports are always-on. Is it neccesary to do that modification or is there a chance it won't discharge the battery despite being plugged in? I do appreciate all the information for the mods but its not even my car so I don't think I could make those changes. I was hoping there might be an adapter or something that could do the trick.

If you want it to switch on/off with the car, yes, you're going to have to modify it.

Will it drain the battery too much? Depends on how good the battery is, how much it actually draws when plugged in but not charging anything, and how long you leave the car sitting between drives. All modern cars draw some power from the battery when not running.

Try it? Buy a jump start pack and keep it in the trunk if you're worried about having to get a jump if the answer ends up being "yes, it drains too much". I'm going to do the same thing with a rear-facing dashcam eventually; I have a power outlet at the back of my Jeep that I'm pretty sure is always-on, and I'd rather leave it running 24x7 anyway since I won't be able to easily switch it off/on to reboot it if it acts up like my front one does sometimes. I also don't have much access to switched power back there, I think.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





kid sinister posted:

You mean the power antenna output? That's pretty slick. I've never thought about that before.

It's what I did on my Ranger to avoid having to find a circuit to tap into, though I could have just as well tapped into the switched wire leading to the head unit. My Sony head unit has both antenna and amp signals - the antenna one is only hot when it's in FM.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Godholio posted:

I don't know that one at all...my carb knowledge is extremely limited.

Right there on the side of the carb in the third picture - Quadrajet :)

I see you - or someone in the past - had trouble with that fuel hard-line. I twisted mine off on my C10 ages ago, replaced it with a couple of barbs and some fuel rated hose from the pump up to the carb.

Do you smell fuel when it stalls? How easy / hard is it to start up? I had my Qjet get a bit of crud on one of the seats so that the needle couldn't move all the way in, and it would run like a raped ape at WOT... But it would eventually flood out at idle, and when it restarted it would spit out a giant black cloud of unburnt fuel.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Go read the AC thread but I had something similar happen with my NB and my MS3. Mazda's idle programming is so simple that it just automatically kicks the throttle open another x% whenever it thinks the A/C should be on, even if the compressor is actually getting shut off because either of the pressure switches is killing it. So when the compressor gets shut off, the idle goes up because there's no sanity-checking to see what RPM the engine is actually idling at.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





HaB posted:

So he mentioned an idle speed to shoot for. Uh...should I just assume that the tach on the dashboard is WILDLY inaccurate? Because at idle now the dash tach shows ~1000. As soon as you drop it into gear, it goes to ~800 and that's where it starts coughing. He was saying it should be set to like 450, and I can't see how that's correct if the dash tach is to be believed.

450 is probably the in gear number. The dash tach may not be wildly inaccurate, but it also operates on a large scale. I used something like this when setting idle RPM on my Qjet: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00062YUUS/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_TV6PvbTQ0NTGG

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Mercury: Maybe your driving habits don't force it into test modes where it is likely to fail? That's kinda odd all the same.

Meatpimp: I'd try any of the chemical rust removers but I don't know how you'd get something like Evaporust to stay put on a table surface. I think there might be a more gel-like option though?

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Are those loving wire nuts? Prime indicator of a hack job right there.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Motronic posted:

If it's the build quality of the few golf carts I've had the displeasure of working on those could be from the factory.

:pwn:

Extra posted:

Are standard heat shrink crimp connectors suitable

Yeah, they're fine. Main thing is you need to have a good crimper, quality crimps, and quality wire. The HF ratcheting crimper is good as long as it fits the crimps you use (I found mine to be too big for heatshrink crimps).

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





fenix down posted:

My battery died yesterday, jumped it and took it to Advance. When the gentleman tried to do a reading, the battery was in use by the aftermarket amp. He disconnects the amp from the positive terminal, then tells me that the battery is fine, but I should wire the amp to the stereo so that it isn't constantly leeching power.

The only weird part is that the amp/sub was installed 3 years ago, and this is the first time the battery has died. The only other thing I can think of is that I have been using Max A/C almost every day this summer. (have never used it previously) Could I have drained the battery using the air conditioner, or is the amp the issue here?

2012 Honda Civic, stock battery
RF 250 watt amp

The battery is probably just dead/dying anyway, but depending on how the amp is actually hooked up (don't trust a parts-jockey to actually know what they're talking about - the ones who do are in the minority) it shouldn't be drawing anything noticeable from the battery with the car off. It's common practice to feed a large amplifier with its own heavy-gauge wire from the battery, but properly done, the amp shouldn't actually draw any current on that until it receives a power-on signal from the head unit.

Now, if the installer was lazy and wired the amp to be on 24x7, then yes, get that poo poo fixed, but I have a hard time believing you've gone 3 years without a drained battery if that's the case. I replaced the battery in my '13 CR-V already, those Honda batteries are not big and they don't give a whole lot of room for error once they degrade a bit.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Yinzer posted:

I have a question in regards to parts. Don't they make OEM and aftermarket stuff in the same factory, on the same assembly lines and just stamp in a brand?

It goes all over the place. Seems like most of the time, OEM is higher price without any significant change in quality over a good aftermarket part, but there are certainly outliers on both extremes. Case in point, a lot of the various Dorman custom parts that are specifically designed to replace flawed OEM parts, like Ford intake manifolds. On the other side, the aftermarket Anchor engine mounts for a WJ that don't even have the bolt holes in the right loving spot.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Motronic posted:

l
The difference between drive and overdrive on an automatic is almost always whether the torque converter locks up (typically at a predetermined speed in top gear, usually around 50 MPH) or not. It isn't "another gear".

Usually you're right but I am having a really hard time thinking of any application where the difference between drive / overdrive is only the lockup and not an additional gear with a ratio less than 1:1. D in every GM overdrive automatic I've driven (all 700R4s and 4L60 variants) has been third gear, sometimes with or without TCC engagement. OD always enables both fourth gear and the TCC solenoid.

On the non-GM autos, both my Honda and Jeep have five-speed autos with a switch on the shifter for OD, which prevents both of them from going past third gear. I think both will still use the lockup clutch. My old Volvo 240 had the same deal, except minus one gear and I don't think it had lockup in the AW70.

Besides, I doubt you could call anything an overdrive transmission if there isn't a top gear with a taller than 1:1 ratio.

That aside, tldr: put it in OD unless you specifically need to keep it out of overdrive, such as towing and driving up or down steep hills.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Raluek posted:

Correct.

I've seen some cars where in 2, it will lock the transmission into second and will not downshift either. They use this to make it easier to launch in low-traction situations where even light throttle in first gets you wheelspin. But most cars that I've driven will still shift between first and second with the shifter in 2.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Raluek posted:

Hm, I've never seen a "manual mode" automatic that will actually hold a gear no matter what. My Chevy certainly doesn't do that. But, that's good to know.

On our old W210 Mercedes, you could fake this by putting the shifter in 2 and enabling the "winter" switch - that switch makes it launch in second, and the shifter in 2 will keep it there. Some googling indicates that the 6L80's default programming in the fifth-gen Camaro is to actually launch in second in most situations anyway.

EightBit posted:

Gear number selection in autos is always a suggestion, usually ignored once you get over a certain speed/RPM. They usually start in that gear and then shift up, though this varies wildly by make and model.

This might be true in a lot of flappy-paddle-wannabe setups but is definitely not the case on a lot of older cars. My TH400, if I put it in 2 or 1 it would've done its best to let me valve float the old heads I was running at the time. I've definitely banged my LS1 off of the rev limiter with the 4L60E when I have it in lower gears. It won't downshift until it can do so safely, but once it does it will stay there. I will say that the 6L80E in my dad's old C6 soured me on that style of shifter/transmission combo. Both paddles could be used for up or down shifting, and the lag between paddle press -> shift was enormous.

I do think, but I'll have to ask my old man to confirm, that same C6 would hold whatever gear you asked it to. I'm pretty sure when he autocrossed it, he'd launch in first, shift to second when it was practical, and leave it there for the rest of the run without it shifting again. Partly because that lag was so awful you could never time a downshift.

I haven't tried it in my CR-V or WJ yet. I will say that the CR-V is the first vehicle I've ever owned that will downshift on its own to use engine braking with cruise enabled on a long downhill.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





some texas redneck posted:

Even my 91 Integra would do that; Honda calls it "grade logic" I think. No idea what voodoo they did to make that happen.

It wouldn't downshift past 3rd on its own (4 speed auto), but it would definitely go from 4th to 3rd. It was also neat watching the tach when coming to a stop, it would downshift through each gear until it hit 1st.

Yeah, the CR-V is also the only automatic I've ever driven where you can catch it downshifting pretty much every time when slowing down. Everything else seems to wait until the revs are low enough that you're below the torque converter stall speed in any gear, or at least does it so smoothly you can't tell.

Also, trip report: the WJ will hold first gear all the way to banging off the limiter. :getin:

Ozmiander posted:

It depends on what our 150k service is.

Very much so. If that's nothing but fluid changes, that's reasonable-to-high depending on how many fluids actually need to be changed. If it includes something more like a timing belt, then I'd say that's a great deal.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply