cakesmith handyman posted:

My car just passed the mot but the advisory is insulting:

"Oil leak, but not excessive engine"

This will not stand, I require excessive engine.

The Prong Song posted:

EDIT2: Know what, nevermind. I dunno about Reddit, but when you work for the US government they are much, MUCH more into your business than just telling you "hey you should buy a nicer car". And, being the government they have the manpower and legal backup to make it much worse for you than just losing your job. Trying to compare and contrast a private company doing this against the federal government doing this, shows there's probably a lack of info on just how intrusive the govt. is to its employees and contractors.

rdb posted:

Someone linked reddit the thread on facebook. Its a 2005 Camry with faded paint and just another car in the garage according to the OP. No other details.

The 2005 with faded paint vs 1995 changes my opinion a bit, no mention of a reserved spot either. Still too many unknowns re: OPs job title/responsibilities and salary. If I cant get a job in a gas station because I failed a credit check than I don’t mind a director getting the same scrutiny. But we don’t know.

rdb posted:

I would rather my employer dictate what I drive than what my healthcare is.

This explains the California thing better. https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/mcs/dieselcomp

KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:

the person did not fail a credit check you absolute dingus

it's not real anyway but basically - there are roles in which it matters what you drive. these roles should be defined in advance by company policy. if those roles exist, the employees that fill them should be provided with a company car that meets the standards of the company for that role.

STR posted:

eBay, of course, but I forget what rabbit hole I fell in to find them. It was very much a drunk purchase, I'm already wishing I'd waited until after paying rent. But they've already shipped. This is the specific set I bought. There's also halogen versions with the clear corner.

I just found the switch + pigtail for the levelers (they're not auto leveling, but the level can be adjusted manually), but (a) I don't have the wiring for it, since they never sold them with HIDs in the US, and (b) it looks like I'd have to lose one of my other dash switches. If I had to choose, it'd probably be the heated windshield switch - I actually use the fogs and cruise.


Yeah, I'll leave them disconnected. I just have to figure out how to actually aim them properly. I'm assuming the leveling screws won't be there, or will be hidden. They're not automatic levelers either; there's a knob inside the car to adjust them (just ran across it on ebay, with a pigtail, but no idea how they'd be hooked up).

And they're reflector housings. Same thing Lincoln and Acura did. Except unlike Lincoln, you can still get bulbs for these (the same D2R Acura used on the TL, looks like a D2C is compatible too)

everdave posted:

Hmm, now I’m worried about my rep because I bought a Mazda fire truck as well...

cakesmith handyman posted:

My car just passed the mot but the advisory is insulting:

"Oil leak, but not excessive engine"

This will not stand, I require excessive engine.

InitialDave posted:

I reckon a V8 will go in a Panda.

Geoj posted:

Looking at the pictures in the eBay auction you posted it appears the horizontal aiming screw sticks out the back of the adjustment motors (the box to the side of the low beam cover in the picture of the bottom/backs of the housings.)

Darchangel posted:

Those look good. I see that there is also a variant form the Legacy GT or STI or something that has bullet-style signals. A little pricier, but neat looking.[/url]

Tremek posted:

Is there a motorized cutoff shutter that enables "highs"? Are the new units single bulb bi-xenons?

STR posted:

There's a motorized cutoff, but it's manually adjustable from inside the car (if you have the full on JDM harness anyway), and I'm pretty sure that's solely to compensate for junk in the trunk, so to speak. There's a halogen high beam as far as I can tell - the USDM version has the halogen high beam, and the pictures definitely make it look like there's a halogen bulb in the same spot, with the reflector arrangement looking pretty much identical to what I have now (also looks like the parking light gets swapped for a "city light", I plan to toss an amber bulb in and use it as a parking light). There's beefy wires (looks like 14 gauge) going to the 4 wire plug that powers both the low beam HIDs and high beam halogens, significantly heavier than the 16 or 18 gauge running my lights now.

I'm sure I'll figure it out once they show up. I'm no stranger to making JDM headlamps work in a USDM car, this is just a bit more of an obscure swap than it was on an Integra - mainly due to how old the platform is now. Much of the info on the swap has been lost to Photobucket and old forum posts.

I also found some (ancient) forums posts suggesting you can swap the USDM reflector bowl over - those posts suggest the housing itself positions the HID bulb differently so that they could use the same bowls. If that's the case, then swapping them over would eliminate the RHD hot spots. I'm not going to tear them apart like that until I can find more info, the whole reason I dropped $200 on JDM HIDZ is so I'm not ~that rear end in a top hat~ blinding everybody. I'll have to have both styles in front of me and see how the bulb is positioned within the reflector before I even consider tearing them apart like that. Luckily, removing them is 3 bolts, 1 plug, and 2 sockets, so it's easy enough to yank one of the stock ones out.

Geoj posted:

Only bi-xenons I've ever seen or worked with are projectors on the low beam. Turn on the high beam, and a solenoid wired into the HB circuit kicks a metal shutter that usually defines the top of the beam cutoff located between the reflector and projector optics out of the way. I don't think you could accomplish the same thing with a reflector housing.

toplitzin posted:

Managed to actually make a purchase though Ticketmaster for something I'm psyched for.

Olympic Mathlete posted:

trouser chili posted:

It’s been since the 11th since I got time to relax. It’s so strange not having a thing I have to do. It’s not strange in that I dislike it, rather in that I can’t believe I’ve tolerated my workload for so long. What ever happened to the slacker I always wanted to be?

That Mazda5 I bought new 12 years ago when my chill life got busy appears to have poo poo a transmission. My wife cried...Right up to the point she saw I bought her a Miata.

Elviscat posted:

The closest they're coming to Seattle is loving LA, I'm so mad.

Grakkus posted:

Also, there's nothing better for devouring miles than a hydropneumatic Citroen, the ride quality and seats are so drat good... Really put it to the test when I hit a stretch of the old Nazi highway near Cottbus.

Scionix posted:

turns out doing a single color wrap is way more expensive than I thought

trouser chili posted:

That Mazda5 I bought new 12 years ago when my chill life got busy appears to have poo poo a transmission. My wife cried...Right up to the point she saw I bought her a Miata.

Minnesota Mixup posted:

What kinds of quotes are you getting?

Previa_fun posted:

Wasn't your 5 a manual? Your van made me really want a manual Mazda5. I've still never even driven one but good on Mazda for offering it.

Beach Bum posted:

Did you get the bow

Edit: this is not the BWM thread

Scionix posted:

ND chat

trouser chili posted:

Learn Spanish for “vinyl wrap” and go back to your painter buddies?

Also, cool car bro!

Scionix posted:

V6 Cayman S

Scionix posted:

like 4k to 4.5k lmao. That's approaching engine swap territory! I was willing to go up to like 3k, but geez.

the car was 35k, you can put a loving v6 in it for like 5/6 grand, am I really gonna pay 4.5k for a wrap? At the same time, it's such a nice color....

Scionix posted:

I'm comfortable going cheap on simple re-spray stuff, but a whole wrap? Seems iffy especially as I have an RF and there's the issue of doing the panels in the folding roof assembly.

Also I found out they're not spanish, they are actually Greek

Grakkus posted:

Made it back home in the 16v without it blowing up or me killing myself from some combination of lack of sleep, summer tyres in negative temps and boredom. Originally my plan was to take the scenic route, but due to the unknown condition of the mechanicals I opted to just shoot straight for home. Since I'm a cheap bastard I opted to just sleep in the car, but that ended up not being a great idea due to the cold. I ended up driving till I was tired, sleeping a couple of hours until the cold woke me up, driving an hour or two and then sleeping until the cold woke me again. In some ways that system was actually better, as it gained me another 300km or so during the night. Also, there's nothing better for devouring miles than a hydropneumatic Citroen, the ride quality and seats are so drat good... Really put it to the test when I hit a stretch of the old Nazi highway near Cottbus.



Ancient segmented concrete slabs are NOT fun to drive over at speed, but these cars actually make it tolerable.







Managed to damage the front bumper like a total spanner though, perhaps two hours in. Stopped at a restaurant in the Netherlands, then navigating back to the highway, Google took me onto some weird dirt road. Was traveling along it too fast, totally unused to the speed and lightness of the car, when suddenly a 2 foot deep trench the width of the road looms out of the darkness and bam:



My bodywork guy will get a little closer to his boat I guess

trouser chili posted:

I did learn I cannot apply window film worth a drat a long time ago.

Rhyno posted:

My Dad had a heart valve repaired a few years ago. The repair has failed and he needs to have the procedure repeated. He's almost 70 and this isn't good, the first time he had multiple complications. I just had a 45 minute conversation with him trying to convince him that his family does not have an expiration date as both of his parents and sister died by 70.


January continues it's lifetime streak of sucking.

Rhyno posted:

I keep telling myself he's strong and pretty healthy so he's gonna be fine. And he has tons that he wants to accomplish still so he's driven to keep going. But he's obsessed with this expiration date nonsense and that is hard to deal with. It was just sort of a joke but then my aunt died and now he's back on that again.

Ugh. He's not going to die, I'm definitely overreacting. But January is where all the ghosts live so I get pretty emotional.

Scionix posted:

I feel like there's this kind of price gap where I'm at in terms of income. I could've stayed within my means and got, say, a used V6 Cayman S, but then you can't thrash it like the ND and not worry about parts or something breaking. There's not really a fun sports car in that high 30's low 50's range that isn't either: