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I had a 2004 Honda Element sitting in my driveway for 3 years (out of sight out of mind) and finally mustered the enthusiasm to sell it. I took it in for inspection (Texas) and they told me since the battery was dead for so long, the computer did not save any recent data, and therefore it can't pass inspection. He said the solution is to drive the car 100 miles. I am hesitant to drive this car 100 miles because the registration is 3 years out of date, and the car is an unsafe pile of poo poo that I'm trying to offload to CarMax anyway. Is this guy for real, or is there something else I should do?
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Aug 25, 2020 22:10
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smoobles posted:I had a 2004 Honda Element sitting in my driveway for 3 years (out of sight out of mind) and finally mustered the enthusiasm to sell it. You need to have all the readiness flags set. If you want to verify they are, there are cheap OBD2 scanners on Amazon that work with your phone. iPhones used to need to get Wifi ones instead of Bluetooth ones, but I don't know if that's still true. Isn't there a day pass you can get from the DMV you can use to drive a car to get it repaired? edit: there is usually a specific driving cycle you can do to set the flags faster, maybe somebody else will know what it is.
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Aug 25, 2020 22:18
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smoobles posted:I had a 2004 Honda Element sitting in my driveway for 3 years (out of sight out of mind) and finally mustered the enthusiasm to sell it. Yep that's right. The computer keeps track of certain variables and checks if they're in spec for emissions. Those are called readiness monitors and you need a full drive cycle where the car gets up to temperature properly, drive at different loads and RPM's and whatnot to have them to be set properly. I don't know about having to drive 100 miles, I guess that's one of those better safe than sorry numbers mechanics like to throw out because there's a lot of variables involved and while 20 miles might do it might also not and it'll only piss off your customer and waste everybody's time by having them drive for 20 miles come back and it's still not ready.
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Aug 25, 2020 22:42
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You have to have it inspected before selling in Texas? If so, get a paper temp tag and insure it, then drive it till the readiness monitors set, get it inspected and sell. If no, find a buyer who doesn't care if it's had a dead battery. I'm surprised CarMax would.
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Aug 25, 2020 23:45
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1967 Datsun 1600 Also, for context, I dont do cars. This one was inherited from my grandmother who bought it new in 1966 and Im just trying to do my best without any background in the area. The windshield wipers are stuck pointing up. This happened when I shut them off at apparently just the wrong time. I looked around a bit and found the wiring schematic for the car, and saw that the fuse for the wiper motor/reverse light is blown (8 amp glass tube). My guess is that when I unthinkingly turned them off at just the right time, the linkage jammed, and that caused the motor to stall, which blew the fuse. Or, the motor finally died and shorted out or something the next time I turned it on, and THAT blew the fuse. I dont have a replacement fuse at the moment, apparently 8 is an odd value. I could put a 10 in there, I guess? But I imagine thatd risk damaging the motor if its not already dead. And along the lines of damaging things just for fun, I wanted to check if the issue was just the fuse, so I shut the car off, replaced the blown fuse with a screwdriver (100 amp slow blow), fired everything up, and tried the wiper switch for just a second or two with a little manual wiggle attempted on the linkage by reaching up under the dash. No love, but the driver shaft did get warm so I know it was conducting. Anyhow, likely the motor is just dead and thats got everything jammed? Honestly I dont care if the wipers work at all, this is a fair-weather ride only, so mostly Id just like to get them down. Recommended course of action? Pics for fun: Wiper, no wiping!  Dash shot just because its sexy af: 
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Aug 25, 2020 23:49
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I'd go with 7.5, those are standard. If it blows again maybe try a 10 temporarily to get it to cycle back down but immediately replace it with a 7.5 and figure out your linkage or motor issue.
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Aug 26, 2020 00:18
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Can do. I was at a very small nearly-rural NAPA today and they didn't have anything smaller than a 10, so I have to keep looking around or go online anyhow. That being said, if things were going to move under a 7.5 or a 10, wouldn't they have moved with my screwdriver jammed in there to close the circuit? I mean I'll happily throw a fuse in, it'll be in a 5-pack or whatever, but I can't imagine that doing anything further. I guess I don't actually know what the resistance of the screwdriver is, maybe the plating inhibits the connection or something, ha. Bad Munki fucked around with this message at 00:23 on Aug 26, 2020 |
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Aug 26, 2020 00:20
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You're never going to solve this problem and frankly with a car that old you're just going to encounter more and more situations like this. If you like I can take the car off your hands so you don't have to deal with an out of date deathtrap that's going to nickel and dime you to death. Pm me and we can work out a price - I will even haul it for free.
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Aug 26, 2020 00:26
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Oh poo poo well in that case
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Aug 26, 2020 00:53
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look at that beautiful thing, turns out you do actually do cars.
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Aug 26, 2020 01:01
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Bad Munki posted:Oh poo poo well in that case I'll get him off your back if you can tell me what the little chromed things coming out of the dash are. Neat car. I've never seen one of those or the later 2000 in person. e: That was a fun game sitting out here on the porch. We think we have the answer. madeintaipei fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Aug 26, 2020 |
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Aug 26, 2020 01:01
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taqueso posted:look at that beautiful thing, turns out you do actually do cars. I mean Im trying to do cars, so yeah. Ultimately, the car goes to my sister when shes ready for it, but shes not yet lifestyle-wise, nor can she drive stick and I dont know if she knows what a choke is? It may effectively remains with me forever, well see. I consider it practice for the car I actually want, a Caterham, haters be damned. Like I dont know if Ill ever be able to effectively tune the dual carb in this thing, I have enough trouble with the carb in my chainsaw, but you gotta start somewhere.
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Aug 26, 2020 01:07
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madeintaipei posted:I'll get him off your back if you can tell me what the little chromed things coming out of the dash are. Tonneau cover clips. There are some around the back of the cab as well. The ones on the dash are for a racing style cover, which covers the cab but has a hole cut out for the driver. The best part? I actually have that cover.Ill see if I can dig up a pic of it in place. e: Here ya go: 
Bad Munki fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Aug 26, 2020 |
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Aug 26, 2020 01:11
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Bad Munki posted:Tonneau cover clips. There are some around the back of the cab as well. The ones on the dash are for a racing style cover, which covers the cab but has a hole cut out for the driver. Beautiful! Thank you!
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Aug 26, 2020 01:24
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So were you right?
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Aug 26, 2020 01:25
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Bad Munki posted:So were you right? I wasn't. One of the other people here knew what it was for, but not what the whole assembly was called (a tonneau). Now we're all talking about mid 60's-early 70's Japanese sports cars and how easily they eclipsed the equivalent British cars. Great-Granma had MGs.
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Aug 26, 2020 01:38
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kastein posted:You have to have it inspected before selling in Texas? No. But Carmax generally requires vehicles have a current registration. They're trying to sell to Carmax. Carmax knows the bulk of the card they buy for a trade are going either to auction or crusher, but they want a current registration just in case it's something they can sell. A vehicle of that age should be able to knock all but 1 or 2 of the readiness monitors out within an hour or two. Texas allows one "not ready" (which will almost always be evap). Texas has also supposedly suspended pulling people over for out of date registrations. If the OP does get stopped, explaining "I'm trying to get it to pass smog so I can renew it, just trying to complete a drive cycle" should be enough... in theory 
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Aug 26, 2020 01:45
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Bad Munki posted:I mean Im trying to do cars, so yeah. Ultimately, the car goes to my sister when shes ready for it, but shes not yet lifestyle-wise, nor can she drive stick and I dont know if she knows what a choke is? It may effectively remains with me forever, well see. I consider it practice for the car I actually want, a Caterham, haters be damned. The wiper linkage may be binding up due to a lack of lubricant or a broken nylon retainer/bearing. Getting a look at the wiper linkage assembly will be revealing. One more thing you can try is to get a helper, set up the slo-blo again, turn on the wipers and have the helper jiggle them. Once they get past the point that theyre bound on, they may start operating again. If theyre jerky in operation, youll need to replace what broke in the linkage and lube it all up. Use a a vacuum gauge to tune a multiple-carb set-up.
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Aug 26, 2020 02:26
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2002 Volvo V70. I was under the car last week changing the oil and found a torn outer CV boot. The tear is about an inch long and there's a little grease around it. The joint inside looked well lubricated and the grease looked like grease should look. I ordered the part immediately and it just showed up in the mail. How big of a hurry should I be in to replace the CV boot? Should I drop everything and do it this weekend or can I leave this for another couple of weeks until I have a convenient chunk of time available?
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Aug 26, 2020 05:24
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Every bit of water and dust that gets in there is taking life off the CV joint, so I'd avoid driving it in excessively dry or wet conditions if possible until it's rebooted. Wash the old grease out and put all new grease in, too, if you can.
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Aug 26, 2020 05:53
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kastein posted:Every bit of water and dust that gets in there is taking life off the CV joint, so I'd avoid driving it in excessively dry or wet conditions if possible until it's rebooted. Wash the old grease out and put all new grease in, too, if you can. That's about what I figured, thanks. I'll do a complete dissasembly of the joint to clean and re-grease if possible. I've done it once before and thought it was a pretty neat mechanical puzzle, though filthy. It needs to come apart anyways unless I want to use the boot streching cone which seems skethcy.
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Aug 26, 2020 06:56
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I am a stupid fucker that has let some small (nickel-sized) rust spots on my hood sit for a few months. I am going to get them fixed, but my car is also due for a detail. Which should I do first and also how boned am I repair-cost wise
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Aug 26, 2020 18:19
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1999 Impreza, salvage title due to front left corner damage hitting a curb. I did the suspension and added an anti-lift kit and front strut mounts that add caster, so it has increased caster and camber. When I turn close to lock in either direction I hear a grinding from the front left side now. I thought that the body panel, which was pushed back slightly in the accident, might be grinding, but when I turn the wheel all the way while parked there's no interference, so unless the tire is moving significantly forward/back under load that's not it. Any troubleshooting suggestions? I'm in an apartment now so I can't get under it and poke around too much without someone complaining. I can drive it fine normally, but I have to be careful when pulling a u-turn and swing wide when parking in a tight spot so I'd like to figure it out. There's a decent chance that the answer is getting rid of a bit of the negative camber, but I'd like to figure it out so I can fix it in one go rather than repeatedly taking off the tires and making adjustments.
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Aug 26, 2020 18:50
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22 Eargesplitten posted:1999 Impreza, salvage title due to front left corner damage hitting a curb. I did the suspension and added an anti-lift kit and front strut mounts that add caster, so it has increased caster and camber. When I turn close to lock in either direction I hear a grinding from the front left side now. I thought that the body panel, which was pushed back slightly in the accident, might be grinding, but when I turn the wheel all the way while parked there's no interference, so unless the tire is moving significantly forward/back under load that's not it. Could it be a wheel offset issue? The inside of the rim is making contact with the strut? If it's severe enough, you should be able to feel it.
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Aug 26, 2020 19:06
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That could be, I'll poke at it. It did feel like a slightly different angle was needed after I swapped over to summers (the car had been up on blocks since May when we still get snow). In that case would matching wheel spacers on both fronts be an acceptable solution? Or would I need them on all four corners to keep handling stable? I'd think even half an inch or an inch would be enough but I know nothing about spacers.
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Aug 26, 2020 19:34
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I'm trying to do my own body work, fix my rusty AF rocker panels. In the great cleansing of cutting and cleaning, I discover that the bottom part of the frame rail has rusted out from about halfway back. No problem, I think; as soon as I can get some thick enough metal, I can patch that right up. Then, I get my hands on my car's shop manual. I get a structural parts list, and notice the frame rails are described as Zinc-coated. (I always wear an n95 mask when cutting and planned to do the same when welding.) Now I've heard of the potential heath dangers that come from mistreating galvanized things. The internet says using a flux core welder (which I have) can make successful welds, but I figured I'd stop and get some opinions on what the gently caress I'm doing here; my goal was to learn a bit of sheet metal work and fix up a car that still works well and I like but has no real value. As I'm a total nublet, I wanna check I'm still in happy nub-fixable land.
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Aug 26, 2020 19:38
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taqueso posted:Lifepo4 batteries might be a good option instead of AGM, you can arrange the 4 cells however you want. They are becoming common as all-in-one car battery setups with 4 cells and a battery management system, or you can make your own from components. Do you have any good resources on this? My Opel GT doesn't need much of a battery, and smaller / more flexible is vastly better since access to where the battery lives, sucks.
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Aug 26, 2020 19:46
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IOwnCalculus posted:Do you have any good resources on this? My Opel GT doesn't need much of a battery, and smaller / more flexible is vastly better since access to where the battery lives, sucks. this. I know a battery is theoretically simple but poo poo wouldnt know where to start making a custom.
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Aug 26, 2020 21:02
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This video shows what's inside a commercial lifepo4 car battery https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UJYm4g1z1s You need: - four cells, each is 3.2V so you get 12.8 nominal for your car - a BMS (battery management system) that will balance the cells (make all the cells maintain the same voltage which makes the pack last longer) this is the small wires that go to each cell - a way to protect the battery from high voltages or short circuit (a BMS might include this) - big beefy connections between the cells Lifepo4 are pretty easy to charge and very resiliant I don't have any great resources that say "here's how to do it", I've been reading a bunch as I go and haven't found the holy grail of information yet.
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Aug 26, 2020 21:27
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taqueso posted:This video shows what's inside a commercial lifepo4 car battery This is what big electric pallet jacks and similar things are moving to as a drop-in replacement. Much longer run time per ton of battery pack, half (or less) the charge time, longer life, and 0 maintenance.
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Aug 26, 2020 22:12
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I came across this video while digging further and while their specific design choices leave a lot to be desired (wood? why not just terminate the cables underneath the terminals instead of running through the wood?), I'm thinking a small LiFePo4 starter pack would be quite viable for the Opel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEd5FkGnljQ
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Aug 26, 2020 22:50
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You could always get a lithium powersport battery and put adaptors on it for car battery terminals. I did that on my Civic and it held up fine, wouldn't recommend leaving the headlights or radio on too long without the engine on though. I did something similar for my Neon race car, but I changed the terminal leads to be more like motorcycle battery connections, so I just line up the wire lead and put a bolt through it to the battery. A lot easier than making a battery.
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Aug 27, 2020 01:38
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2002 Toyota Corolla, 180K miles. Check engine light came on. Plugged in an OBDII scanner and got a P0420, which states "catalyst system efficiency below threshold bank 1". Thought maybe it was a fluke, cleared the codes and did a drive cycle only for it to come up again. No other codes present. I have some problems with the car burning oil, so I have to to replace it every 1-2 months. Not sure if that is related to it or not. Time is sort of working against me, as my car tags are expired and California wont let me renew them without a smog test, which will apparently auto fail if a check engine light is on. Internet says it could be a number of cheap to expensive, easy to difficult fixes. What do ya'll think?
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Aug 27, 2020 01:58
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I'm no expert but burning oil could very well clog/gently caress up your catalytic converter, which is what the code sounds like to me. I can't say what would/wouldn't be a good idea to fix but you probably need a new cat, unless you can get one of those cheap temporary "fixes" to work long enough to get your registration done.
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Aug 27, 2020 03:43
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Preface: Not a car person. Driving a 2006 Honda Accord 4-cylinder manual transmission with ~75k miles on it. I need to get it smogged for California registration this year; for what it's worth it's never had issues in the past. Since Shelter-in-Place hit in mid-March, I've seldom had an excuse to drive the vehicle more than a few miles at a time--there have been a few longer drives here and there, but suffice to say that I've been puttering around with 1/4 to 3/8ths of a tank since SIP started. It was so inactive that I ended up needing to replace the ~5 y/o battery in April...and that's when I learned about "drive cycles" and OBD2 monitors (again, not a car guy). Since a friend of mine likes tinkering with cars, we plugged his OBD2 monitor into the car and it showed that one of the monitors was still not ready (the "Heated Catalyst" monitor, specifically)--the rest looked complete. I also learned about how you can put the key into the #2 position and, without turning the engine over, watch to see what the check engine light does: If it goes out after 20 seconds or so, all monitors should be set; if it ultimately flashes 5 times, it indicates that a monitor is not set. So that backs up the idea that this "Heated Catalyst" monitor isn't ready to go yet for some reason. On a positive note, for the first time in 5 months, the vehicle has 3/4ths of a tank of gas in it (which is what I was advised to do). Probably a good thing to have available with all of these fires going around. What I'm wondering is, is there a specific thing that I can do to get the Heated Catalyst monitor set? I'm aware of the annoying specific set of steps for completing an entire "drive cycle", but is there some particular part of the process that addresses the Heated Catalyst monitor specifically? It's been kind of annoying trying to do the whole "let it sit for 6 hours, idle for 3 minutes with the ac & rear defrost on, another 2-3 with the ac & defrost off, drive 50-60 mph and then drop down to 20 mph without touching the brakes or clutch, then accelerate, blah blah blah etc." It revealed just how awkward it is to try to let the car drift from 50-60 mph down to 20 mph without touching the brakes or clutch on a CA freeway. Thanks in advance. Cream-of-Plenty fucked around with this message at 03:58 on Aug 27, 2020 |
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Aug 27, 2020 03:55
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GOD IS BED posted:You could always get a lithium powersport battery and put adaptors on it for car battery terminals. I did that on my Civic and it held up fine, wouldn't recommend leaving the headlights or radio on too long without the engine on though. I did something similar for my Neon race car, but I changed the terminal leads to be more like motorcycle battery connections, so I just line up the wire lead and put a bolt through it to the battery. A lot easier than making a battery. I think I might go this route. Just the LiFePo4 cells alone would cost about as much as one of Battery Tender's motorcycle batteries. Given that the car only has a 35A alternator and a starter rated at a whopping 850W, I should be able to get away with fuckall.
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Aug 27, 2020 06:26
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buglord posted:2002 Toyota Corolla, 180K miles. You need a new cat - adding to the pain, it has to be a CARB legal cat (so basically Toyota or a very small handful of aftermarket brands). No way around it. And you're doing oil changes every 1-2 months, or just topping it off? Some of this could be leaks, but at 180k it's going to burn SOME oil. As long as it's not enough to be smoking, it's not much to worry about. In some states you could use a cheat to get around it, but IIRC California inspections actually look under the car, right? And their punishment for "tampering" is a shitload worse than most states. 180k is a reasonable lifespan for a cat. Cream-of-Plenty posted:What I'm wondering is, is there a specific thing that I can do to get the Heated Catalyst monitor set? Just drive it a bit, with some highway trips. It should set on its own after a couple of hundred miles. You could go through the trouble of doing a complete drive cycle (2 or 3 times in a row to be safe), but that takes a lot more  than hitting the highway during non-rush hour times.randomidiot fucked around with this message at 21:03 on Aug 27, 2020 |
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Aug 27, 2020 20:54
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STR posted:Just drive it a bit, with some highway trips. It should set on its own after a couple of hundred miles. You could go through the trouble of doing a complete drive cycle (2 or 3 times in a row to be safe), but that takes a lot more Thanks for the feedback. Ill plan on just putting miles on it then, since yeah, attempting these drive cycles in the Bay Area is kind of a nightmare unless I want to attempt it at 10 PM or 4 AM or something. Appreciate it.
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Aug 27, 2020 22:46
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Oof okay, I was prepping myself for that reality. Follow up question: Is it worth the repair? Car is a means to an end to me. Visually, the car looks like a drugmobile, but aside from this the hunk-a-junk runs well. I'd prefer to keep it going so I don't have to worry about a car payment. If I had to ditch it, i'd likely get another older car. I can take this to the car buying thread. I dont mind throwing the money into this car, just as long as its not going to waste long term.
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Aug 27, 2020 22:51
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Well I hosed up my driveway. I was fixing some rust on our trailer with corroseal rust convertor, it said that it cleans up with soap and water so I didn't bother putting a drop cloth down, now there are black spots of dried corroseal (magnetite?) that the pressure washer wouldn't even take off. I tried scrubbing with mineral spirits but that didn't do poo poo either, same with simple green. How bad did I gently caress up?
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Aug 27, 2020 23:37
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