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DreadCthulhu posted:What do people think of the Fair app? Basically lets you do short term leases for an upfront payment + monthly fee. Is it a terrible deal and are you a sucker for using that? Of course it's a terrible deal. It's playing people who are afraid of commitments for suckers.
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Jun 30, 2018 01:16
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Deteriorata posted:Of course it's a terrible deal. It's playing people who are afraid of commitments for suckers. What's considered a fair deal these days amongst people in the know? Just buying used from CL and not dealing with leases altogether? I know it sounds like a silly question, but I haven't had to own a car in a decade, so this is all new to me.
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Jun 30, 2018 01:20
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DreadCthulhu posted:What's considered a fair deal these days amongst people in the know? Just buying used from CL and not dealing with leases altogether? I know it sounds like a silly question, but I haven't had to own a car in a decade, so this is all new to me. You're generally better off buying a car. The cheapest option is driving it until the wheels fall off, otherwise just sell it to someone else when you're tired of it. Leases make sense if you own a business and you need to swap capital costs for cash flow.
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Jun 30, 2018 01:33
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Buy something around $2000, drive it for about 3 years, you might put in about $1500 in parts over the course of these 3 years but it ends up costing just over $1000/year
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Jun 30, 2018 01:45
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Breakfast Feud posted:Buy something around $2000, drive it for about 3 years, you might put in about $1500 in parts over the course of these 3 years but it ends up costing just over $1000/year I can vouch for this. My last two cars ended up costing about $60/month counting purchase price and replacement parts.
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Jun 30, 2018 02:47
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Is there a make / model that will not poo poo itself on me as a 2k purchase or are cars these days all pretty much good enough where they *generally* won't fall apart on me? e.g. a beat up Camry or Civic or a Subaru will probably still chug along like nobody's business?
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Jun 30, 2018 04:35
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DreadCthulhu posted:Is there a make / model that will not poo poo itself on me as a 2k purchase or are cars these days all pretty much good enough where they *generally* won't fall apart on me? e.g. a beat up Camry or Civic or a Subaru will probably still chug along like nobody's business? What matters most at that point is maintenance history. If a car has been properly taken care of, it will last a long time. It's easy to clean up a beater to make it look nice, so take someone with you who knows what to look for. Few people actually keep all their maintenance receipts, but ask for them anyway. If the owner actually has them, it's a very good sign.
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Jun 30, 2018 04:49
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So, I've got a check engine light I need to clear up. The AutoZone guy's diagnostic tool said there's misfiring in one of the cylinders and suggested replacing the ignition coil. The guy also said it may just need a tune-up. I'm scraping for money, though, so I don't want to head down the wrong path. I could pay for more accurate diagnostics, but again, money. I can't decide between getting the full engine diagnostics done, or seeing if I can just get that one coil replaced. I tried taking one of them out, so I could probably replace it on my own... if I knew which one it was. And I dunno if that would turn off the check engine light. TL;DR - I am bad at cars and decision making. LaserShark fucked around with this message at 06:24 on Jun 30, 2018 |
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Jun 30, 2018 06:17
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P0300 is random misfire, rest are each cylinder so find out the pcode find out which cylinder.
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Jun 30, 2018 06:44
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A "tune up" in the traditional sense does not exist on any car capable of giving you a P0300. Is this on the Escape you posted about earlier or something else? What year / what engine? Does it seem to actually run poorly? There's one of two issues going on here. Either something is actually causing a misfire (bad coil, bad plug, bad fuel injector, or some mechanical issue with a cylinder), or the sensors the computer uses are acting up (crank/cam position sensors) and giving the computer bad information so it *thinks* there is a misfire. Agreed with totalnewbie, you need to know all of the codes before you start on this. If there's one cylinder in particular throwing it, you can diagnose various bits by swapping them with other good cylinders. For example, if the code is for cylinder 1, swap the coils between 1 and 2 and clear the codes. If the code now shows up on cylinder 2, you know which coil is bad. If the code stays on cylinder 1, keep checking other parts.
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Jun 30, 2018 06:55
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Yeah, it's the Escape, 4 cylinder non-hybrid. It mostly runs fine, though it struggles sometimes when I put on the gas, especially in cold weather. I don't have a diagnostic tool myself, but I could pick one up. I guess that should probably be my first step.
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Jun 30, 2018 07:11
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Anybody know what model of Escort this is? It's not the oldest model but it's pretty close, and there's nothing to indicate a model number at all.  I found it tucked away in a relative's garage and was told to garbage it if I didn't want it. I have a Max 2 so this is practically useless to me, but it seemed about on-par for signal detection when I ran them side by side. It's pretty shaky on differentiating between the bands (it seems to think a powerful K signal is a Ka signal and doesn't differentiate between K and X at all), but it seems to get all of them. It was even picking up signals that my Max wasn't, but probably just noise as far as I can tell. I was thinking of selling it to one of the delivery drivers I work with. Not because it'll do him any good, but because it'll false-positive on every automatic door all over the city and gently caress with his head constantly, thereby slowing him down and levelling out the playing field a bit. In the bizz he's what we call a "snake," and has a habit of taking deliveries that were supposed to be other drivers' so long as it benefits him the most and nobody stops him before he gets out the door. He "slithers" away with whatever he can get away with. Usually it's not worth going to management over, but it can really piss off your coworkers after a while. Personally I couldn't imagine using a detector without GPS lockout, especially one that thinks nearly every automatic door is a cop.  But first I need to know roughly what it's worth, and google/ebay surprisingly aren't helping. LaserShark posted:I don't have a diagnostic tool myself, but I could pick one up. I have a Veepeak OBDII BDE scanner, $40 on Amazon. Plug it into your OBD port and it connects via bluetooth to your phone. You can stream realtime sensor data to custom gauge clusters, log colour-coded GPS maps correlating that sensor data to visual information, and best of all: check and reset codes. I've only used the OBD Fusion app but it does all the stuff I mentioned and was only $14. A+ would recommend. Edit: Those are Canadian prices, if you're in the States it's probably a little cheaper. Edit 2: Check if it'll work with your Escape first, depending on year the OBDII BDE scan tool may or may not be compatible. XYZAB fucked around with this message at 09:15 on Jun 30, 2018 |
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Jun 30, 2018 08:56
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Handen posted:Anybody know what model of Escort this is? It's not the oldest model but it's pretty close, and there's nothing to indicate a model number at all. http://escortradarforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14367 Post 3 shows the Escort DSP which looks right, and the ad seems to have a copyright 1990. Not sure if that will help figure out what it's worth but at least you know what it is.
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Jun 30, 2018 10:35
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Rexxed posted:http://escortradarforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14367 drat, thanks! It doesn't even do Ka apparently. 
XYZAB fucked around with this message at 10:43 on Jun 30, 2018 |
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Jun 30, 2018 10:41
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Radar detectors are illegal where I'm from and the police have radar detector detectors.  And then radar detectors became outfitted with radar detector detector detectors a lot of you probably already know this but I think it's funny. spankmeister fucked around with this message at 10:58 on Jun 30, 2018 |
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Jun 30, 2018 10:56
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LaserShark posted:So, I've got a check engine light I need to clear up. The AutoZone guy's diagnostic tool said there's misfiring in one of the cylinders and suggested replacing the ignition coil. The guy also said it may just need a tune-up. I'm scraping for money, though, so I don't want to head down the wrong path. I could pay for more accurate diagnostics, but again, money. I can't decide between getting the full engine diagnostics done, or seeing if I can just get that one coil replaced. I tried taking one of them out, so I could probably replace it on my own... if I knew which one it was. And I dunno if that would turn off the check engine light. When was the last time your spark plugs were replaced and how many miles/km on the car?
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Jun 30, 2018 13:20
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spankmeister posted:Radar detectors are illegal where I'm from and the police have radar detector detectors. Aaah yes, the Tracebuster buster buster buster issue.
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Jun 30, 2018 15:44
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Has anyone used https://www.nissanpartswebstore.com They supposedly have a part I can't find anywhere else but that in and of itself makes me kinda suspicious. Anyone know anything about them? Is it scamola town?
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Jun 30, 2018 18:51
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OK AI, what car should I buy? I had a 2010 Toyota RAV4 Sport that I was pretty happy with, despite its soccer mom-ness, until it was totaled in a rear-end collision about 3 weeks ago. I'll be getting about $12k from my insurance company and can probably kick in another 1-2k on my own for a down payment. Don't really want to finance >50% of the car's value so my budget is realistically $25k or so. I basically want another version of the same basic vehicle. Looking for a car with the following features in order of priority: Reliable SUV/Crossover body style AWD Good clearance Good resale value Low-ish milage (<50k) Reasonably powerful engine w/ good acceleration (I live in CO and need all the help I can get when I get into the Vail pass on I70, etc) New-ish Looking primarily at CPO Toyota, Honda, and Subaru crossovers/SUVs. Particularly Foresters, RAV4s, CRVS. Any other models/years/etc I should look at in particular? any makes/models outside of these 3 that I should consider? I know the CRV was redesigned for 2017 but so far the used prices in my area don't seem to really reflect that. They seem to sell roughly at the same price as equivalent RAV4s. CPO Foresters seem really reasonably priced around here too - any reason not to look at those? I also found a couple XTerras with low mileage on them (2014, 2008 with 40k and 15k respectively). Is it worth looking at those?
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Jun 30, 2018 19:19
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Kommienzuspadt posted:OK AI, what car should I buy? There is a whole thread dedicated to this in A/T, with a lot of wise A.I. posters contributing. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3213538 Sorry I can't offer help. I'm in Texas and our standard answer to your question would be, "get a truck"
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Jun 30, 2018 19:51
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Dennis McClaren posted:There is a whole thread dedicated to this in A/T, with a lot of wise A.I. posters contributing. thats super helpful; I'll move this question over there. thank you!
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Jun 30, 2018 21:10
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My 2003 Subaru Forester stopped charging the battery. Dash light is on, along with the park brake light. 11.8 V from alternator post to battery ground, as well as across the battery posts while the engine is running. I pulled the green connector off the alternator, and both dash lights went out. Both wires have battery voltage with the key on and engine running. I'm reasonably sure it's the alternator that needs replacing but wanted to check if anyone has any other ideas before I drop $200 on a new one.
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Jul 1, 2018 02:22
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Take the alternator to an autozone or similar and they can test it.
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Jul 1, 2018 02:25
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There are places that can fix an alt for less than the cost of a new alt, depending on the issue with it. Failing that, they're 100-150 on rockauto
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Jul 1, 2018 02:35
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Detective Thompson posted:Has anyone used https://www.nissanpartswebstore.com They supposedly have a part I can't find anywhere else but that in and of itself makes me kinda suspicious. Anyone know anything about them? Is it scamola town? I can't speak for that one specifically but sometimes dealers will set up sites like these to make some extra cash selling parts. I looked up the address it appears that that's the case with that one. You can call the dealer's parts department and ask them about the part/site to be sure. You may also want to hit up your local dealer since if that dealer has it your local one should be able to get it.
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Jul 1, 2018 02:45
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Godholio posted:Take the alternator to an autozone or similar and they can test it. Javid posted:There are places that can fix an alt for less than the cost of a new alt, depending on the issue with it. I figured getting it bench tested is the best idea, but that will probably have to wait until Tuesday, unless anyone knows a place in Metro Vancouver that tests alternators and is open on the long weekend.
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Jul 1, 2018 08:14
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AutoZone and O'Reilly's are usually open on Sundays if you can pull it yourself.
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Jul 1, 2018 15:45
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Javid posted:AutoZone and O'Reilly's are usually open on Sundays if you can pull it yourself. Today's Canada Day so he'll want to call around to be safe...
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Jul 1, 2018 16:50
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Are there goon-approved resources out there with general or model-specific guidelines for how often different components should be replaced or tended to, like "clean your fuel system every X miles" or "replace the coolant every Y years"? I'm going to start keeping better track of when and at what mileage these things get taken care of on my car (2011 Ford Escape) because it seems like every time I take it in for an oil change they always try to tell me that something else needs to be cleaned/replaced/refilled and I'd like to know how much they're telling the truth when they say that sort of thing.
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Jul 1, 2018 18:10
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The owner's manual.
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Jul 1, 2018 18:23
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Godholio posted:The owner's manual. Are owner's manual's authors over-zealous with their estimates on when and how often to perform maintenance procedures? Or is the timing they prescribe usually good guidance? I would think that maybe the auto manufacturer's manual might swing one way or the other; too much maintenance too often, or what would be considered normal.
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Jul 1, 2018 19:18
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I'm about to change spark plugs (among other things) and got to thinking about the various greases and locktite etc people use on stuff. Is there good resource of what to use where, when and why?
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Jul 1, 2018 19:33
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Dennis McClaren posted:Are owner's manual's authors over-zealous with their estimates on when and how often to perform maintenance procedures? They're generally a LITTLE conservative, because it's a one-size-fits all (or two sizes, regular and heavy duty, sometimes) solution. Most of what's in there is "inspect system X" anyway. If you really want to get into it and stretch your intervals, you can send samples of fluids to be analyzed. I've had Blackstone Labs look at my oil several times, for example.
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Jul 1, 2018 20:44
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MrOnBicycle posted:I'm about to change spark plugs (among other things) and got to thinking about the various greases and locktite etc people use on stuff. Is there good resource of what to use where, when and why? If the threads are black, use antiseize. If they're plated and shiny, nothing. Dielectric grease on the porcelain will help prevent the wire boots from sticking and it'll be easier to remove later.
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Jul 1, 2018 20:45
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Ansith posted:My ute is hosed, help Just going back to my issue here to put some closure on it. I had the transmission fluid checking procedure wrong. I did it cold, it's more like check it after a 4km drive doing no more than 2500 revs, leave to cool for 3 minutes until the fluid is a certain temp, and then it should be level with the fill hole. It was a little bit low and had some major leaks. Leaks fixed + full flush and service kit. Shifting lag all fixed, and it's far better at downshifting (sometimes even jumping down 2 gears!). The major issue turned out to be the catalytic converter was completely hosed. It had fallen apart and blocked up the muffler. The mechanic picked up on it pretty quickly, with him reving it I could hear bits of crap hitting metal further down the pipes. I replaced the whole exhaust apart from the exhaust manifold. Decided for an extra $100 to get a sports exhaust. Which turned out to have twin pipes at the rear - a pretty funny look on a base model white ute. The final result is apart from the driveline vibration at 2000rpm (probably engine mounts), everything is fixed. Noises are gone, shifting is better, and as a bonus it picked up a bunch of missing power.
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Jul 2, 2018 00:11
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Im looking to swap from my 2005 Mk2 Honda CRV. I mainly do local tourism in scotland which whilst on the motorway this can be fine my habbit of going into forests/historical sites means i am often thrown down some roads which might as well have just been shelled. The CRV served me very well back when i lived in Europe where roads outside of belgium where maintained a fair amount better. In the last few months ive replaced a spring/shock/ball joint and now a bush. The ride is also quite rough on these roads to the point the drivers seat now has a lot of movement and the windows wrattle on all but the smoothest roads making urban driving with lots of roundabouts more entertaining than it should be. Whilst some of my driving is urban/short distance to load up for food for the week my main form of driving is motorway transitioning onto lots of backroads/farm roads/access roads with occasional dirt tracks and gravel. Cars passengers are usually atleast 2 people + 2 Mid-Large sized dogs, With regular additional people so a 5 door with at least a reasonable sized boot would be nessecary, CRV as reference proves about the perfect size. I was looking for advice on a SUV bodied car that would serve this purpose, essentially a CRV but a bit rougher. So far the third generation grand vitara is tempting because they are quite affordable but i also know it is the version that swapped off a ladder design, The diesel version which i would be aiming for also has low ratios which might be useful like one time one day which is a nice bonus. There are some low end jeeps which are also tempting but FCA. Can anyone advise or offer other suggestions for UK/EU car models.
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Jul 2, 2018 09:39
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Disco seems to fit your criteria quite closely.
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Jul 2, 2018 09:50
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spog posted:Disco seems to fit your criteria quite closely. The disco 3 is a viable temptation for me as the price range is not a world different but i feel it might fall slightly too large/low mpg based on what ive seen online. I dont expect the world of mpg but 35-45 would be fantastic. Currently im returning about 42 combined on my trips or about 400ish miles a tank. which is the sort of bench mark im going for.
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Jul 2, 2018 10:22
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I'd second a LR recommendation. If you're worried about mpg, throw on an LPG conversion and forget about fuel costs!
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Jul 2, 2018 12:55
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Dennis McClaren posted:Are owner's manual's authors over-zealous with their estimates on when and how often to perform maintenance procedures? They usually err on the side of caution. Makes sense, right? But they don't typically do that without reason. I've worked on a product that had its maintenance schedule reduced in the manual and it was done for good reason. It doesn't always line up with what the particular component needs (e.g. maybe it's good for "70k miles" - though this depends a lot on driving style, weather, etc. depending on the component) but is chosen to match a service time, so if it falls between two other service intervals, OEMs will choose the shorter one. No point going in every 5k miles for a difference service if you could just do them all at the same time. But if you want to know whether you should follow the owner's manual? Then yes. Yes, you should. At the end of the day, think about it like insurance. Godholio posted:If the threads are black, use antiseize. If they're plated and shiny, nothing. Dielectric grease on the porcelain will help prevent the wire boots from sticking and it'll be easier to remove later. Seconded, though if you're replacing spark plugs on your car and they're unplated (black) I would seriously recommend you go and get new spark plugs. Tip: NGK/Denso > Bosch > anything else (including Champion). OEM brands are not made by the OEMs, so don't stress out about putting OEMs in. Make sure the plugs are appropriate for your car, though, and don't mix and match. I've seen people pull 3 long-reach plugs and 1 normal-reach plug out of a car and it just makes me go 
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Jul 2, 2018 15:19
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