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LongSack posted:Can anyone help me understand what these things are? They are white square boxes either on the trunk or roof of patrol cars. I've seen as many as 4 on a trunk. Every google search I try no matter the wording would claim that they are license plate cameras, but those are not what I'm talking about. LP cams are not white square boxes. These have no obvious apertures for capping license plates. Maybe if you asked politely the officer would tell you.
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Jul 8, 2017 05:08
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My first guess would be some kind of antenna.
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Jul 8, 2017 05:10
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GPS antennas (2 antennas for positional stuff with NEW NEW cop cars) or license plate cameras with box covers. Other radio packages, too. Police cruisers have cell data, wifi, and sometimes mesh networks now. My ambulance has four boxes on top. A GPS puck, the mesh router, the cell antenna, and the depreciated GPS antenna from the old system we used. Then five radio antennas: 800mhz backup/rural fire, 2 digital tx/rx (we have two main cities), hospital analog patch radio, and an unknown one. Queen_Combat fucked around with this message at 06:35 on Jul 8, 2017 |
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Jul 8, 2017 06:31
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Metal Geir Skogul posted:GPS antennas (2 antennas for positional stuff with NEW NEW cop cars) or license plate cameras with box covers. Other radio packages, too. Police cruisers have cell data, wifi, and sometimes mesh networks now. Some cars are outfitted with Lojack antenna arrays, too, for triangulating the position of stolen cars. I think those are standard monopole antennas, though, not a directional patch antenna like he might be describing.
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Jul 8, 2017 07:31
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Godholio posted:My first guess would be some kind of antenna. Yeah I mean pretty much anything other than consumer products is covered with little white box gps trackers etc these days at the very least
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Jul 8, 2017 18:47
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Metal Geir Skogul posted:GPS antennas (2 antennas for positional stuff with NEW NEW cop cars) or license plate cameras with box covers. Other radio packages, too. Police cruisers have cell data, wifi, and sometimes mesh networks now. Thanks. That makes a lot of sense. I didn't realize there was so much communications gear these days.
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Jul 8, 2017 22:25
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Metal Geir Skogul posted:GPS antennas (2 antennas for positional stuff with NEW NEW cop cars) or license plate cameras with box covers. Other radio packages, too. Police cruisers have cell data, wifi, and sometimes mesh networks now. That last one is for SETI. 
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Jul 8, 2017 23:55
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1993 Honda Del Sol Si The buzzer that beeps when you open the door and the headlights are on crapped out in my car so I bought a replacement from Amazon. I installed it using the same wires the old one was hooked to and it works, but when the door is closed, the dome light still lights up at about half brightness when the switch is set to the middle (door open on) position. The dome light bulb is an aftermarket LED bulb. Also, when the engine is running, the buzzer has a faint whine that fluctuates with engine RPMs. Does anybody either have a solution or a wiring diagram that shows the dome light, door switch, and headlight alarm? I was under the impression that the door switch provided a ground for both the buzzer and dome light, so there should be no current flowing if the door is closed, but it seems to be getting a path to ground from somewhere.
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Jul 9, 2017 12:01
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My new car is doing my head in. It's a VW Golf 2017, brand new, it had 14 miles when I got it, I'm the first registered keeper. Since day one, it's felt off. I feel like an idiot for not noticing it during the test drive, it behaved normally then cause I wasn't driving how I normally do. Once I was driving by myself, the clutch felt loose and like it wasn't gripping properly: if I accelerated, it'd oomph for a little bit then dip and then oomph again (if that makes sense?). My old Golf was always really smooth, if I accelerated, it'd do exactly that, without hiccups or dips, but the new one is like the clutch loses grip. I took it in for a service a week after having it and had them check it over, they told me it's just the way the new engines are made yada yada it'll take some getting used to, which sort of rubbed me the wrong way cause I like to think I'm a really decent driver and have good clutch control etc. They tightened the clutch up so it felt a bit more responsive, but the underlying problems are still there. I'll be doing 25mph then try and accelerate to 35mph and it'll dip around 28mph, like it's losing traction, and you can physically feel it do that. The best word to describe it is "it feels like it slips". Just back after driving for 30 minutes, and I opened the hood up and there's a very faint burning smell, sorta like when you burn the clutch by over-revving. I've never had this happen before, and the only time I've ever burnt a clutch was when I was 17 learning how to drive. On top of this, there's factory glue or something (it's a white, waxy substance that I can break off) all on the bottom of the car along the edges. It's hidden from view unless you get down and peek under the car. It just feels really weird for a brand spanking new car to have that, on top of the broken plastic interior I spotted (a plastic clip was broken and they repaired it). I'm taking it back in for another service, what should I tell them to make sure they fix whatever problem there is? It's still within the 14 day period where I can cancel the contract, but I really don't wanna do that cause then I have no idea how it works seeing as I've already part-exchanged my old car.  This is saying it's normal for a Diesel to have a burning smell, but I never once smelled burning coming from my old Golf, which was also a Diesel and had the fan go on after I'd gotten out sometimes. It's frustrating because I don't know what's the norm for a new car, I've always had used cars up til now, so the paranoia of "did I end up with a defective new car or am I just being overly worried?" keeps messing with me. Qubee fucked around with this message at 13:20 on Jul 9, 2017 |
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Jul 9, 2017 13:13
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If the "burning smell" does smell a lot like hot brakes (friction material) it might be cause for concern, combined with the clutch feeling odd, that may be worth further investigation. I know there have been instances of VWs with deformed clutch pressure plates so they weren't presenting a flat clamping face and allowing clutch slip: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=23&t=1658748 This could very well be a defect, rather than something you're imagining, and given the risk of a failure in a few months being handwaved as "oh, that's because you abused the clutch", I'd be pushing for further detail. What country are you in? The UK? Bear in mind that your rights relating to the finance agreement for the car are not necessarily correlated to your right to reject the car itself.
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Jul 9, 2017 13:38
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Go raise hell at the dealership until they give you a new car. That poo poo's unacceptable. You've noticed some poo poo wrong and it hasn't even been 14 days? That's nutty.
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Jul 9, 2017 14:46
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Monday morning I'll call them up, your posts have just made me even more convinced that it's not just in my head. It handles so badly. I kept thinking "Nah, it's just cause it's a new car and it'll take time to break in" but gently caress. They got a Head Technician to sit in the car with me whilst I drove it when I took it in last week and it didn't act up like it normally does, despite me driving as I usually do. It's just bullshit because the next available service is July 24th or later, waiting that long will just make it harder if the car is defective and I want to return it. I'll give the finance company a call tomorrow as well and ask them how it'd work if the car turns out to be defective and I wanna return it after the 14 day period. Cheers for the help, I'll keep you updated. Pre-service, the clutch was too light and floaty and didn't respond well. Post-service, it's tighter and harder to depress (which is what I like) but now it's hosed with the electronic parking, 60% of my pull-aways don't cause the electronic break to release and it's gotten so bad that I'm nervous to pull away and instead just manually turn off the electronic parking break. I've had a few situations where the parking break is so engaged that it's like trying to drive off with the handbrake on, and at one point I think it caused the clutch to burn? Paranoia is made a hell of a lot worse cause they basically threw so many deals at me to get rid of this car, so I'm thinking there may well have been something wrong with it.
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Jul 9, 2017 15:08
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Q8ee posted:Paranoia is made a hell of a lot worse cause they basically threw so many deals at me to get rid of this car, so I'm thinking there may well have been something wrong with it. I hope you don't stress over it too much. If it makes you feel any better the aggressive deals probably aren't because your Golf is haunted, but that little emissions scandal. And you should still have several years of warranty coverage, plus hopefully your jurisdiction has consumer protections in case they are unable to resolve the problem after repeated attempts.
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Jul 9, 2017 15:34
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Boys who love boys
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If you're not 100% satisfied with your brand new car then the problems aren't in your head. You just dropped a whole bunch of money on a thing, you are definitely entitled to having it work exactly the way it should. The thing sounds like a lemon. Don't trust the dealership to fix it. I'd be doing everything I could to offload back on the dealership and get a different one. My girlfriend's parents put their trust in the dealership to "fix" their car with all kind of transmission issues off the lot and guess what? They're still dealing with it after warranty except now it's out of pocket. Don't let the fact you got rid of your other car stop you from returning it outright, either. If you have to return the car and get your money back it'll still be cheaper to get a rental for a few days until you find a dealership that wants to play ball than it would be to fix all the issues in the car you have.
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Jul 9, 2017 17:06
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Aye, not too worried about the deals, it was right around the time of the quarterly report so they straight up told me they wanted to sell it ASAP to bolster their sales and show management they're selling lots of cars per quarter. I'm pretty sure that's why I got it at a good deal. The thing I'm not sure about (which I'll clarify once I call VW Finance tomorrow) is how it would even work if I were to return the car. I'd get my deposit back, but I've already part-exchanged my old car, so I have no idea what would happen with regards to me getting another car. My car was in really good nick, and it's up on their website for sale already (I got £9,750 for it and it's up for £11,490), so the best case scenario would be I get my old car back and it's as if nothing happened, or my old car manages to get sold and I'm left without anything? I might even fork out £50 to get it checked by an independent garage (probably Halfords) to see what they have to say about it. PS: Car finance is a loving scam. Some poor bastard is gonna buy a 3 year old car and still be paying roughly the same monthly instalments I was paying, despite it being only worth £11,000 and putting a £1000 deposit towards it, as opposed to the £21,000 it was worth when I got it. They make so much money off of finance, god drat. The final optional payment to buy the car outright is £5000 as well, what a sham.
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Jul 9, 2017 17:40
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The definitive test for clutch slippage is cruising at maybe 2k RPM in the tallest gear. If you depress the accelerator completely and the RPMs increase without a corresponding increase in speed, your clutch is slipping. You can do this test in any gear really, but the tallest gear won't accelerate you so much that a discrepancy in RPM vs speed is too hard to perceive.
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Jul 9, 2017 18:08
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Elsa posted:The definitive test for clutch slippage is cruising at maybe 2k RPM in the tallest gear. If you depress the accelerator completely and the RPMs increase without a corresponding increase in speed, your clutch is slipping. You can do this test in any gear really, but the tallest gear won't accelerate you so much that a discrepancy in RPM vs speed is too hard to perceive. I'll try that out today.
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Jul 9, 2017 18:20
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SkunkDuster posted:
Here's your answer. It's not uncommon for cars designed before LED bulbs were a thing to cheat a bit on their electrical systems. There's some other circuit leaking to ground through your dome light and buzzer. Normally this wouldn't be an issue with an incandescent bulb in the dome light, since it adds a lot of resistance to the circuit. You'd need to add a resistor inline with the bulb.
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Jul 9, 2017 18:31
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Q8ee posted:The thing I'm not sure about (which I'll clarify once I call VW Finance tomorrow) is how it would even work if I were to return the car. I'd get my deposit back, but I've already part-exchanged my old car, so I have no idea what would happen with regards to me getting another car. My car was in really good nick, and it's up on their website for sale already (I got £9,750 for it and it's up for £11,490), so the best case scenario would be I get my old car back and it's as if nothing happened, or my old car manages to get sold and I'm left without anything? I'd actually recommend registering on Pistonheads if you aren't already, so you can ask questions there if necessary. While they're somewhat irascible much of the time, there are people there with good knowledge of your rights etc under UK consumer law. Q8ee posted:I might even fork out £50 to get it checked by an independent garage (probably Halfords) to see what they have to say about it. Q8ee posted:PS: Car finance is a loving scam. Some poor bastard is gonna buy a 3 year old car and still be paying roughly the same monthly instalments I was paying, despite it being only worth £11,000 and putting a £1000 deposit towards it, as opposed to the £21,000 it was worth when I got it. They make so much money off of finance, god drat. The final optional payment to buy the car outright is £5000 as well, what a sham. Terry Pratchett posted:The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
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Jul 9, 2017 18:48
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Q8ee posted:PS: Car finance is a loving scam. Some poor bastard is gonna buy a 3 year old car and still be paying roughly the same monthly instalments I was paying, despite it being only worth £11,000 and putting a £1000 deposit towards it, as opposed to the £21,000 it was worth when I got it. They make so much money off of finance, god drat. The final optional payment to buy the car outright is £5000 as well, what a sham. I don't understand your point. How is it scammy? Are you saying it's unfair that cars depreciate heavily or that used cars cost so much? The market prices things appropriately IMO and I don't find it scammy, dealer practices I find probably more scammy than finance practices. Unless we're talking about buy-here-pay-here. I actually think car finance is pretty neat, I can buy a $20k car and make monthly payments instead of plopping down a fuckload. And because it's a secured loan the % is pretty low compared to the overall cost of money. The things I hate the most are depreciation and the bid-ask spread. I can buy a used car, and as soon as I sign the dotted line, it is now worth at least a few thousand $ less if I decide to sell it immediately. Michael Scott fucked around with this message at 20:21 on Jul 9, 2017 |
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Jul 9, 2017 20:18
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I don't think I'd ever buy a new car exactly for that reason. Just driving it off the lot knocks a few grand off its value. Much better to buy a one or two year old car.
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Jul 9, 2017 20:33
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spankmeister posted:I don't think I'd ever buy a new car exactly for that reason. Just driving it off the lot knocks a few grand off its value. Much better to buy a one or two year old car. I drive cars until the wheels fall off, so that has never been a concern to me. If you plan to keep a car for less than five years or so, I guess depreciation matters.
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Jul 9, 2017 21:27
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Michael Scott posted:I don't understand your point. How is it scammy? Are you saying it's unfair that cars depreciate heavily or that used cars cost so much? I got the car for £21,000 with awful APR (about 11.9%) and was paying £271 a month for it. Part-exchanged it 3 years later, now it's going for £11,000 and with a £1000 deposit towards it, you're still looking at roughly £220 a month for a car that's half the price. I just meant the fact that finance companies make a poo poo-tonne of money from these finance plans, and ultimately at the end of the PCP contract, you don't even own the car, there's always a final payment of (in this case) £5000 which is just absolutely ridiculous. Basically, finance makes it so that every car they sell on it, they get 2 times the value of the car back over the span of 6-8 years. I find that rather mind boggling. Cars depreciating and all that wasn't the point I wanted to make. Just that cars depreciating in value doesn't really affect overall finance payments, which I was really surprised to see. Kinda shoehorns buyers into just paying a few £££ extra each month for a newer model. Deteriorata posted:I drive cars until the wheels fall off, so that has never been a concern to me. Dunno how it is in America, but in the UK, we use PCP contracts a lot, which are basically finance agreements where you hand the car back at the end of the contract term (or you can terminate earlier once you've paid 30-50% of the total value back, usually around the 2 year mark) or part-exchange it for a newer model on a new contract agreement. Depreciation doesn't really matter unless you outright buy the car. It's a great alternative for someone who wants to keep their options open to upgrade to a newer model every few years. Not sure I'd ever want the stress of owning a car outright, manufacturer's warranty is awesome so I know that if anything ever goes wrong, I won't have to shell out thousands to maintain the car, seeing as I'll be handing them back in well before the warranty expires. You also tend to get free service plans thrown in on new / used cars if you're lucky and the dealership has that offer. Qubee fucked around with this message at 21:32 on Jul 9, 2017 |
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Jul 9, 2017 21:28
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^Is that different from a lease? I've only bought two actual new vehicles, the first was a 2002 Focus. I sold it after 10 years and 140,000 miles. Replaced it with a '12 Wrangler, which rolled 100,000 miles Tuesday (and is now sitting with the goddamned intake manifold removed so I can swap spark plugs because *Chrysler*). Depreciation isn't even on my list of concerns when I buy a vehicle. Deteriorata posted:I drive cars until the wheels fall off, so that has never been a concern to me. Bingo. Godholio fucked around with this message at 21:38 on Jul 9, 2017 |
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Jul 9, 2017 21:35
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Err, it's not quite that simple. If you want to take a voluntary termination of the PCP, you'd need to be past the halfway point of the total sum financed, which would include the final payment. If you pay £200 a month on a 4-year term with a £5k optional final payment, it'd be the end of the third year to reach that point. The main thing is to run the numbers on the various ways of getting a given car and see which works out cheaper. Edit: Yes, a PCP is different from a lease, it's a financing of the purchase of the car, rather than a payment for the long-term use of it. Critically, it wears a different hat in terms of consumer credit, so it's more like a loan/financial product than a "service". InitialDave fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Jul 9, 2017 |
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Jul 9, 2017 21:40
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Q8ee posted:I got the car for £21,000 with awful APR (about 11.9%) and was paying £271 a month for it. Part-exchanged it 3 years later, now it's going for £11,000 and with a £1000 deposit towards it, you're still looking at roughly £220 a month for a car that's half the price. I just meant the fact that finance companies make a poo poo-tonne of money from these finance plans, and ultimately at the end of the PCP contract, you don't even own the car, there's always a final payment of (in this case) £5000 which is just absolutely ridiculous. Basically, finance makes it so that every car they sell on it, they get 2 times the value of the car back over the span of 6-8 years. I find that rather mind boggling. Yes, that's a "lease" in America, and it's why your dealer is fleecing you with finance charges. Somebody has to pay for that depreciation, and it's going to be you one way or another. Upgrading to a newer model every few years is hella expensive.
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Jul 9, 2017 21:41
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Deteriorata posted:Yes, that's a "lease" in America, and it's why your dealer is fleecing you with finance charges. Somebody has to pay for that depreciation, and it's going to be you one way or another.
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Jul 9, 2017 21:44
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95 Ford Bronco. Its has a 302 and a threaded stud inside the thermostat housing, the stud is flush with the surface and under tension (I believe.) I might tap it out, any suggestions on what to do here?
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Jul 9, 2017 21:57
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Under tension? So it has something tightened onto it? Is it flush with the block surface or flush with the top of the thermostat housing?
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Jul 9, 2017 22:15
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InitialDave posted:Under tension? So it has something tightened onto it? Sorry, seems i was misusing the term. But it is flush with the block surface. The housing is off
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Jul 9, 2017 22:22
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Is it bubba'd in there or supposed to be there? I have no idea what you're even talking about.
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Jul 9, 2017 22:36
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It is a bolt that holds the thermostat housing in place, i tried taking it out, but the head of the bolt snapped off
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Jul 9, 2017 22:51
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InitialDave posted:Err, it's not quite that simple. If you want to take a voluntary termination of the PCP, you'd need to be past the halfway point of the total sum financed, which would include the final payment. If you pay £200 a month on a 4-year term with a £5k optional final payment, it'd be the end of the third year to reach that point. I was eligible for voluntary termination after just under 3 years of having the car under finance. You can do it at 30% as well but it incurs extra fees (but overall cheaper than paying monthly for another year), whereas 50% is a simple terminate without any fees involved.
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Jul 9, 2017 23:08
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Q8ee posted:I was eligible for voluntary termination after just under 3 years of having the car under finance. You can do it at 30% as well but it incurs extra fees (but overall cheaper than paying monthly for another year), whereas 50% is a simple terminate without any fees involved.
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Jul 9, 2017 23:52
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IOwnCalculus posted:Here's your answer. It's not uncommon for cars designed before LED bulbs were a thing to cheat a bit on their electrical systems. There's some other circuit leaking to ground through your dome light and buzzer. Normally this wouldn't be an issue with an incandescent bulb in the dome light, since it adds a lot of resistance to the circuit. That makes sense. I'll measure the resistance of the LED vs. an incandescent and the difference should give me the value of resistor I need. I'm assuming that I can put it in series with the buzzer instead of the light since I don't have any problems when the buzzer is disconnected. Thanks!
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Jul 10, 2017 02:08
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BambiPowerBottom posted:It is a bolt that holds the thermostat housing in place, i tried taking it out, but the head of the bolt snapped off OH. Ok. I've never had one break off flush...I guess you could try to drill/tap it. Edit: V That's actually what I had in my head. Godholio fucked around with this message at 03:34 on Jul 10, 2017 |
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Jul 10, 2017 03:02
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Godholio posted:OH. Ok. I've never had one break off flush...I guess you could try to drill/tap it. https://www.amazon.com/Damaged-Remover-Extractor-Product-Stop/dp/B00MZCEBII Extractor is reverse-threaded, so as you turn it you simultaneously dig the extractor in deeper while the stud/broken bolt is loosened.
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Jul 10, 2017 03:20
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I can't wait for another babby's first extractor experience.
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Jul 10, 2017 12:51
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Question about selling a car: I own a 2004 Hyundai Elantra, lowest trim, with around 110,000 miles on it. It hasn't run particularly well since last year and mostly just sits on the street. I don't use it often, so I dragged my feet to get it fixed. I was originally told the car needed a new battery so I replaced that, then told to replace the alternator (replaced for $280 a few weeks back). Drove OK only once after that, with the radio intermittently turning on and off while on the highway. I parked it and it hasn't started again since, including no luck jumping it. Other than that whole issue, it's still on the original timing belt and clutch and needs a new set of tires. The monthly insurance payment alone would cover the Ubers for when I do want a car to get someplace. Is my thought process correct in that spending the money to try to get it started so I can sell it going to be a wash? Elantras around the same years with more mileage, but actually start and according to the ads don't need any major repairs, list for around $2000 on Craigslist. If this is the case, what is the best way to get read of it? Donate it to NPR or a school's auto program?
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Jul 10, 2017 14:45
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Neon Belly posted:Question about selling a car: Before you give up and donate it - the problem with your car sounds more like a battery terminal issue to me. The Hyundais from around that time had rather strange terminals that would corrode internally. They look fine on the outside but they won't tighten properly, and the loose connection can cause misdiagnosis as bad battery/alternator. Terminals are cheap. Check it by wiggling the terminals. If they move at ALL - you have found your issue. Often if you wiggle them just right - the car will magically just start. In some cases you can just use a terminal shim - any parts store has them in the battery cables/accessories. If that won't work - new terminal.
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Jul 10, 2017 16:48
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