AI Stupid Question Thread - The automotive forum is calling about your car

B4Ctom1 · # ¿ Apr 12, 2015 03:34

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

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B4Ctom1 · # ¿ Apr 12, 2015 03:44

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 · # ¿ Apr 12, 2015 03:49

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.

B4Ctom1 · # ¿ Apr 12, 2015 04:01

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

B4Ctom1 · # ¿ Apr 12, 2015 05:04

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.

B4Ctom1 · # ¿ Apr 12, 2015 10:40

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 · # ¿ Apr 12, 2015 10:59

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?

B4Ctom1 · # ¿ Nov 21, 2015 19:13

I made a thread a while back called "Bought a new Subaru Forester Touring 2.5i" where I bought a fancy 2015 Forester
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3688601

It has since been archived obviously.

I have since, encountered a strange problem with it. This is a problem that has always existed in a limited form, but is recently exacerbated by what I believe is standard tire wear. While driving on the highway when it is icy, this vehicle is treacherous to drive. It twerks, twiggles, and wiggles at any speed above 30 MPH. While cars and semis are dangerously swerving around me, I am there with my flashers on impeding traffic. Even at that speed it takes every bit of concentration and sell to keep the car going straight.

You can feel the disturbance or instability passing from the front tires to the rear tires. The electronic console that normally registers any small wheelslip is silent about it until it actually causes the car to go out of control. It is as if they are so small and slight that they do not break the threshold of the stability control's notice.

It reminds me a little of the way that some cars/tires are guided or wiggle on fresh grooved concrete highway.

If you have ever driven a AWD or 4WD vehicle with differentials with a slight offset, or with tires that are slightly different in size, then you know the feeling I am describing. Obviously, this isn't as severe, as there is no real "binding" as is common with this extreme. But I bring it up simply for descriptive purposes.

A quick search showed me that someone else made a post about it on Edmunds:
http://www.edmunds.com/subaru/forester/2015/consumer-reviews/review-529703690861699072/

They and others are experiencing the same problem, although more poorly described. The solution it seems will have to be new tires. It came with, and still has lots of great tread on it's Bridgestone Dueler H/L 400 in the 225/55/18 size.

3rd guy down is a guy here that describes it as "ghost walking". He even bought new snow tires and it was doing it
http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin/f88/back-end-sliding-winter-conditions-merged-thread-487857/index11.html

I am not super familiar with this tire, but the other day my wife asked me to pull over and trade her cars because she was so frustrated and scared of its performance. My 2009 Outback was driving on the same road in front of her without issue. I thought she was being a baby about it, I had to apologize when I got home because this is totally hosed.

So now I have to buy new tires for it, and swap back the others in the summer until I get the worth out of these loving Bridgestones too? What 18" snow tires do I get that isn't going to tear a $1000 hole in my bank account? Is it something else?

B4Ctom1 · # ¿ Nov 22, 2015 03:47

wolrah posted:

Unless you have some insane aftermarket brake package that requires 18" wheels the correct answer here is to get some winter wheels that are as small as will fit on the car. Snow tires will be a lot cheaper for smaller diameter wheels and you get more sidewall to suck up potholes and other road nastiness that tends to get worse in the winter.

I am not sure if the Touring brakes are bigger or not.

wolrah posted:

Tire Rack recommends a 16" wheel for your vehicle which puts you around $750 for steel wheels and a good set of tires.

I wonder if wheels from other Subaru models would fit? I could go to our local yard.

wolrah posted:

Is the wiggling you notice in any way related to anything you can see on the road, markings, grooves, etc? My BMW has always been very susceptible to "tramlining" (catching and following grooves in the road) when running tires with open channels in the tread, I think I recall reading that was related to the OEM rear alignment being more aggressive than most. That explanation doesn't really fit as well with a crossover as it does with a sort of sporty sedan, but it came to mind.

We get the same on hard clay roads with ice. I used the description because the feel is identical, except with the ice, it makes it so unstable that you can lose control if you speed up above 34 mph. If I filmed myself, it would look like I were driving a 100 mph rally car on a long straight. Tons of small corrective inputs that make me look like "I" am the one trying to cause a wreck if you are familiar.

wolrah posted:

If there's any easy way to disable the car's "nanny" electronics you might be able to determine whether it's a mechanical issue or a sensor/programming problem. I know on most Haldex AWD cars you can pull a fuse and make it run in 2WD mode, not sure if Subaru's AWD allows for something similar. Do that plus disable traction control (may have to pull more fuses or disconnect ABS sensors) and you'd have the computer entirely out of the equation to do some further testing. Obviously you'd need to be careful when driving like this, especially if the problem requires icy conditions to get it to show up, but it's potentially a useful experiment.

Both myself and others have seen not a peep out of the lights that flash incessantly at the slightest slip. These inputs are so small and fast that they bear no resemblance to the more hamfisted type of inputs the Subaru stability control gives.

B4Ctom1 · # ¿ Nov 22, 2015 04:01

Bajaha posted:

Why not just get a set of winter wheels and throw snow tires on there? You can for 17" wheels for sure on the forester, might even fit 16" wheels (or as small as 15" but finding tires tall enough might be a headache) if they didn't change the hubs for the turbo models, you have 5x100 bolt pattern which lets you use pretty much any pre 2014 non-STI oem wheels. Should be able to pick up a used set for ~$200 then you'd just have to find tires.

This really helps, but how many tire sensors can I program for? We kill tires all the time as our 60 mile commute includes 20 miles of rough crushed gravel roads. I have killed tires simply because a nail or sharp bit of gravel and then drove 1/4 mile before I realized I was completely flat.

Bajaha posted:

if you have a membership Costco can be pretty awesome for tire prices as well.

I am new to costco, just recently having fired Sams Club for their business practices and a DIFFERENT tire related issue of all things. What offering do you suggest from them?

Bajaha posted:

Here's my family's 2015 NA forester on gold WRX 17" alloys. The tires are a little undersized since they're from my Baja. Size 215/60R-17 but for the forester they should ideally be 65 aspect ratio.

Looks great. Your post is extremely helpful as I was curious about Subaru cross platform wheel compatibility.

B4Ctom1 · # ¿ Nov 22, 2015 17:01

A Proper Uppercut posted:

Hey, I was asking about winter tire a little earlier in the thread. Just want to say you might want to check out Craigslist. I finally found a set of 16" wheels with almost new snow tires on them that will fit my car, for $400. I don't know what area you live in, but my CL had loads of listings for wheels+snow tires.

Great idea! I might have to wait until summer to get the most deals?

B4Ctom1 · # ¿ Nov 22, 2015 17:05

H110Hawk posted:

How does one wade through the sea of Cheap Chinese Crap to find the correct Cheap Chinese Crap? Christmas is coming, and I have $12 in Google Play credit and was thinking about getting a BT OBD2 adapter + paid app. Are there better models for various cars, or is that mostly on the app side? I was hoping it would do more than just read codes, hence paying for the app.

In order of caring: 2009 Z4, 2016 Prius V, 2013 Civic

Here is the iPad/iPhone/iPod version I have that uses wifi instead of bluetooth since Apple's bluetooth compatibility is corporately controlled
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B3K2X4M

I found that the App Store app called DashCommand is great.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dashcommand-obd-ii-gauge-dashboards/id321293183?mt=8

B4Ctom1 · # ¿ Nov 23, 2015 23:58

Bajaha posted:

Costco has the same deal on Michelin and Bridgestone tires at the moment, $70 off. I've got a set of WS80's on my old forester, and the 2015 pictured above is on WS70's from my Baja. Personally I've been favoring the Bridgestone (b\c of price) but the Michelin X-Ice series is supposed to be a top contender too.

This is a handy site for comparing the size differences with different tire\wheel packages. Most OEM subaru wheels are around +48ish offset and usually around 6.5"- 7" rim width.

I've found reports of people using 16" wheels on 2014+ foresters, also it looks like all levels of forester use the same brakes, at least if you look at the cross compatibility for the rotors and calipers

I think you can only program one set of TPMS sensors at a time. You'll either have to be more vigilant for that section of your commute or you'll have get a second set of sensors and see what the procedure for reprogramming is. It could be simple or it could mean a dealer trip.

Thank you so much for this effort post.

Even if I use my wheels I can get for a lot less than I imagined.

B4Ctom1 fucked around with this message at 00:03 on Nov 24, 2015

B4Ctom1 · # ¿ Dec 20, 2015 03:15

SFH1989 posted:

I was involved in a hit and run about a month ago. The guy came forward ten days later (and got arrested). I just got the revised police report with his insurance info on it.

Should I go directly to his insurance (Geico) myself to file a claim? Or should I do it through my insurance (Allstate) and have them deal with it? It's my 26 year old F-150 so I just want a check and I would like to avoid my rate going up.

I've never done this before, first time using insurance in over 10 years of driving.

From my wife, a formerly licensed adjuster and also an insurance customer service slave in a past life:

Your best bet is to file through his first. If they delay or fail to take action after a week, file through your own insurance company. If you have full coverage, and depending on your state's laws and your underinsured motorist protections, you might have to pay your deductible (which your insurance company could subjugate back to you later).

If you have liability only; your only option, you must go through his insurance company, or get ready to take it in the shorts.

B4Ctom1 · # ¿ Jul 31, 2016 18:13

I wanted to take the time to return to this thread because I posted a while back about the ghost walking of my wife's 2015 Forester Touring on the lovely 225/55/18 factory Bridgestone Dueler tires on even wet roads.

I did as people suggested and I replaced those tires. I replaced them with Michelin Defenders part number 82313 from Costco for $650 bucks ($70 instant rebate sale), and it is like a whole new car.

Winter hasn't arrived yet, but I purposefully drove it through the sheeted water on an empty section of I-80 here in Wyoming from a thunderstorm. The kind of road puddling that I would normally avoid in any vehicle. I did this at speeds up to 80 mph (yes, I am that kind of person) and there was none of the prior instability.

When winter gets here, I will get to test it in snow ad on ice (not at 80 mph). So if you don't hear from me in this thread about it again, it can either be considered a success, or I killed myself with idiotic testing processes.

Thanks gents

B4Ctom1 · # ¿ Jul 31, 2016 20:11

Javid posted:

Car: 89 cougar

Recently the car has been exhibiting temperature spikes.

I am familiar with this kind of cooling system behavior. The thermostat is a likely culprit, but also consider the fan clutch just because it is so easy to check.

I know you said you replaced the fan clutch when it exploded. I don't know how long ago this happened. Are you familiar with the process of hand testing the fan clutch? Sometimes they prematurely expire in as little as a year after replacement.

With the engine shut off, if you try to give it a spin it should feel lightly resistant. If you hand "throw" the blade and it spins half a turn, to a full turn, and stops you are good.

If it is so stiff you can't throw it, or it freewheel spins a couple of revolutions then you might want to either have someone more experienced hand test it, or replace it.

B4Ctom1 · # ¿ Jul 31, 2016 21:37

That is the answer that doesn't help me tell you for sure. Some perfectly good clutches exhibit this trait. Even new ones. Still hard to say sorry.

B4Ctom1 · # ¿ Aug 2, 2016 14:52

I am want to compare notes with anyone here who might also have too many cars. I have a 91 Ford F-250, a 92 Camaro, and a 93 Subaru Loyale. I mostly drive either a 2009 and 2015 Subaru.

When I drive my 90's cars a lot I have no problems. But when I let them simply sit, they all lose coolant. I don't live in a particularly hot climate, but it is very dry here. Because we get arctic temperatures here in Wyoming, and because I live at 7500 feet, I run a higher ratio of antifreeze to water.

What do you guys think? It seems counterintuitive to me. Sometimes the radiator is down by 1/4 to 1/3 depending on how many months has passed. I never see a puddle. It is almost as if the water in the coolant is evaporating.

B4Ctom1 · # ¿ Aug 3, 2016 03:19

spog posted:

Head gasket issues?

One of them is a 54k truck 460, the other is an older Subaru Boxer. The other has a motor I built. None of them fail the "combustion gases in the coolant" test.

PaintVagrant posted:

Any hoses with some crusty white poo poo on them? Slow leak + evaporation?

I looked around at the hoses, they all look sound. No fogging or anti-freeze smell in the cabin.

I had an 81 GMC beater truck before and a 84 Camaro. The 84 received a few different engines over the years. Both did the same thing if they weren't being driven.

B4Ctom1 · # ¿ Aug 30, 2017 13:55

Plugged cat or fuel system issue?

I have a 2009 Subaru Outback 2.5i PZEV car 5-speed car. It ONLY OCCASIONALLY throws a P0420 code. Odometer just went over 105k miles. It starts and idles fine, feels smooth. It has a sluggishness that has been increasing over time and miles for the last couple months, getting horrible this month. This sluggishness increases with RPM, load, and road speed. It has been getting worse and worse performance wise to the point where even maintaining 60 MPH in 4th gear is a WOT thing. When I do this the engine temps creep towards the red.

There has never been any major maintenance on this engine yet as I have owned the car since new.

It really does feel like a plugged cat, as opposed to feeling like it is running out of fuel. But maybe I am wrong. At idle there isn't even a lot coming out the tail pipe, but when my wife blipped the throttle it came out and burned the poo poo out of my hand. I used a OBD2 reader and the DashCmd app on my iPhone to look at what the up and downstream O2 sensors are doing. I think one of them might be factory wideband, not sure. The lambda on both of them is ranging from the .887 to 1.00 range and a lot of time in the .990's. They don't read identical second to second, but they do follow each others close enough to indicate they are seeing similar exhaust, which as I have read seems to be the opposite of plugged but a burned out cat from a long term over rich issue which is giving me fits.

The long term fuel trim hangs in the -7.9 range and only goes up to a worse of -8.6 but only under heavy engine loads/RPMs. The fuel consumption has NOT gone insane. This almost whole tank of gas has about the same mileage as a normal tank from before this problem, but with only a tiny bit worse consumption than normal which could be attributed to how hard I have to work it to maintain road speeds.

I don't know what to do. I live 30 miles from town. Should I take it to Subaru and pay to have them diagnose it and then fix it myself? I have a pretty good relationship with the service writer there. I let them do all the minor maintenance stuff on this car and the 2015 which gets its services on a plan bought with the car. Before I do that I would like to know if you guys can give me any insight into common known issues with these cars that I might be out of the loop on. Maybe That I am just not using the right search terms in my google-fu.

I am thinking of pulling the 3 bolt from the cat to the rest of the exhaust and take a look around the corner into the cat to see what the honeycomb looks like with a mechanics mirror and a flashlight, or my USB bore scope.

Anything you can contribute would be helpful.

UPDATE: I pulled the exhaust off the primary catalytic converter and it sounded like a beast. Flows like no problem. Separated the secondary cat from the cat back exhaust and put it onto the primary cat and holy plugged batman.

Answer? Secondary cat plugged. Could this 105k mile car just need a secondary cat? Or do you think there is something more to it causing it? The downstream O2 sensor that trips the P0420 is right behind the primary cat. If it were bad, wouldn't the P0420 come on more than once every 150-300 miles? Do you think this could be happening occasionally because of the gasses trapped between the primary cat and the secondary "PZEV" cat that is plugged just from age? If the engine were having a fueling issue wouldn't the primary O2 sensor ahead of both cats also be complaining? Now I am ready to hear opinions now as well.

UPDATE 2: Secondary cat by design is quite a ways downstream. Poorly designed system that doesn't quite allow the secondary cat to "light off" or "fire off" properly. It basically just got plugged up during 105000 miles of cold starts and not enough cycling to high temp to burn off the remaining hydrocarbons.

Solution? Blockage removed. There is now an offload intermediate pipe/secondary cat pipe on there which means the car can never legally be used upon the highway ever ever again nope. Now it will have to be retired to my grandmothers farm and haul chicken feed to the turkeys. The power is 105% back. Even sounds better. It is my understanding that these car with the secondary cat removed but with a good functioning primary cat will still pass the various emissions tests found in other states. Wyoming has no such tests.

B4Ctom1 fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Aug 30, 2017

B4Ctom1 · # ¿ Aug 30, 2017 20:54

Garage2Roadtrip posted:

Kinda sounds like you answered your own question. R2 the secondary cat and go from there. Getting into the lambda values and fuel trim, to me, is way too down in the weeds at this point if there's a clear physical blockage.

Yeah, I don't have the ability to reflash/reburn/program the ECM. I was only meaning to monitor it, not tune it.

Secondary cat by design is quite a ways downstream. Poorly designed system that doesn't quite allow the secondary cat to "light off" or "fire off" properly. It basically just got plugged up during 105000 miles of cold starts and not enough cycling to high temp to burn off the remaining hydrocarbons.

Solution? Blockage removed. There is now an offload intermediate pipe/secondary cat pipe on there which means the car can never legally be used upon the highway ever ever again nope. Now it will have to be retired to my grandmothers farm and haul chicken feed to the turkeys. The power is 105% back. Even sounds better. It is my understanding that these car with the secondary cat removed but with a good functioning primary cat will still pass the various emissions tests found in other states. Wyoming has no such tests.

B4Ctom1 · # ¿ Mar 10, 2018 18:07

Does anyone know how to tell which 2003-2008 Honda Odyssey models are the 5 speed auto with 4WD and which are just the CVT/2WD without climbing under them? Is there an emblem or model designation? A button on the dash? I cannot tell this female friend who is shopping to climb under and look for a rear diff or half shafts.

B4Ctom1 · # ¿ Mar 10, 2018 19:39

Autoexec.bat posted:

I was a bit confused by this question since US Odysseys are basically a different vehicle than the international variants. Here 2003-2008 covers 2 different body styles which all have 5 speeds and I believe are all 2wd. I think you'll need to let us know what country you're in.

This is very valuable information to me. I am in the USA. I was just worried and trying to avoid her getting a CVT model. And I was misinformed on the all-wheel-drive thing. Are there any CVT model�s in that era?

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B4Ctom1 · # ¿ Mar 10, 2018 21:55

Autoexec.bat posted:

I don't think the Odyssey ever came with a CVT in the US, and a quick google confirms that. Apparently the JDM/AUS etc ones had CVTs and 4wd, but neither are on US market units. I did find a couple private sellers on autotrader claiming to have a "4wd - front" version but 3 in the entire country means it's likely a mistake.

shovelbum posted:

I think the CVT was limited to the Civic in that year range. The CVT in those Civics was allegedly quite bad though I have a 1998 still happily running on its first CVT, albeit with a noisy juddering start clutch, that has been that way since I bought it in 2005. You definitely can't count on them having been fed the right fluid though, I wouldn't buy one again just because of that.

Thanks guys