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Metal Geir Skogul posted:From what I read online it's like 80% chance it's the MFS - they're garbage and break all of the time.
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Nov 2, 2017 23:04
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prom candy posted:I also live in Southern Ontario so it's not like the road is covered with snow all winter.
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Nov 5, 2017 23:25
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prom candy posted:Getting out of Milton ASAP is always a good idea. I'm definitely not suggesting that I wouldn't put winters on, more wondering if it would be worth buying a new set of 17s so that I can push the car a little bit more November-April. I'm overall not looking to hoon around or anything, I just will feel dumb if putting my brand new Si on 15s right after getting it will take away the handling characteristics that I paid extra for. The truth is I don't know if I'm a savvy enough driver to really notice though, like I said this is baby's first non-appliance car.
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Nov 6, 2017 04:27
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wesleywillis posted:they were actually pretty crappy (general altimax arctic).  And snow tire != winter tire. Altimax Arctics are winter tires.
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Nov 6, 2017 19:03
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kid sinister posted:Let's say I did bork the engine and need a new one. ...What do I do with the old one?
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Nov 10, 2017 17:01
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JawKnee posted:I am looking to replace the stock cd player/radio in my 2006 impreza and need some advice on which system to buy. If there is a thread specific to car audio, let me know and I'll post there instead  Ranger Stereo Swap 3 by Martin Brummell, on FlickrI put a JVC head unit in my '97 Ranger using 100% parts I bought at Canadian Tire because I had a free afternoon and I didn't want to wait a week or however long to get stuff from the internet. Five things were on my shopping list: 1. Head unit. (I paid about $90 for mine) 2. Connector from my head unit's brand to a universal intermediate. In practice, "universal" means whatever setup the manufacturer of the wire connector chooses. 3. Connector from that "universal" intermediate to Ford. 4. Space-filling dashboard surround to make my new single-DIN head unit fit properly into the big 2-DIN + 90's-everything-is-ovals Ford dashboard 5. Tools for head unit removal. EDIT: I just remembered that in this case, I was able to find a single wire set that connected the head unit to Ford, without an arbitrary intermediate. But I had to pick up a pack of crimp connectors to make it work. Total was about $150 or so. This was 2.5 years ago in Alberta. I was not looking for bluetooth so I don't know what's involved in setting that up. My requirements were CD player, USB, aux-in, and a proper pause button as well as a volume control that doesn't switch to something else if your clumsy hand waving around in a moving vehicle hits it too hard or at an angle or whatever. No-CD-player are called "mechless". For number 5, I ended up buying a more-or-less complete set of tools for any* OEM head unit, it was cheap at only twice the price of the Ford-specific ones. * Any of about 8 or 10 brands of car manufacturers. I swapped in a Sony unit in the Ford ute I had in Australia, using the same procedure (but a mix of about 3 different stores instead of Crappy Tire), the process was the same. Personally, I would not go with Sony again - the controls were awkward, it was too easy to accidentally be scrolling through a menu of dynamic-balance options when I was trying to turn down the volume. I have encountered people who believe there is only one type of head unit tool in existence, typically the tool that their buddy used to replace the OEM unit on his mid-80's shitbox, whatever that was. They get very confused when you show them your completely normal, entirely typical car. As usual, watch out for idiots and try to resist the urge to punch them. ExecuDork fucked around with this message at 21:57 on Nov 22, 2017 |
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Nov 22, 2017 21:55
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incogneato posted:Cool, thanks all! New tires it is. Tirerack.com has generally excellent reviews and they do a whole series of tests on winter tires every year. Burn some time watching their videos and reading their opinions.
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Nov 24, 2017 22:52
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flightless greeb posted:I'm getting a new Nissan Rogue S model (base model, no options) as a company car and I'm wondering if there's anything non permanent I can do to make it a nicer place to be? I'm guessing there's nothing I can do about how slow it is without jeopardizing warranties etc. Also, work out how to connect your phone or stand-alone MP3 player to the car's stereo system. Find some podcasts and music you like, of more than a few hours duration (a dozen songs is pathetic, why do people do this? don't do that. Put like 1000 songs onto a device to play in the car). This turns your car into a place where you can at least groove to your tunes, which will make it a more appealing place to be.
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Dec 1, 2017 16:33
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I have a dilemma, and I'm hoping for some ideas. This is mostly an insurance question. I moved from Ontario to Quebec, and I want to register my car (1997 Ford Ranger) in Quebec. I took it to an inspection station, it has a few problems that must be fixed before it can be registered here, but is mechanically able to drive. Since then, my Ontario car insurance has expired, but the registration (license plates) is good until March. I have an appointment at a mechanic for Monday to fix the issues. It's not legal for me to drive my car on the road without insurance. The tow truck companies I have talked to tell me they cannot tow a car that does not have insurance. The insurance companies tell me they cannot insure my car - the Quebec companies because it is not registered in Quebec, the Ontario companies because I don't live in Ontario any more. I *do* have an address in Ontario that perhaps I could use to buy Ontario insurance with - I have relatives in Ontario and a family cottage that is nobody's permanent residence. I can think of layers of problems with any plan involving these addresses, though. I'm not looking to commit insurance fraud here. The mechanic's shop is very close to my apartment, about 200m away, but the inspection station is further, maybe 10 km. The mechanics around here are very busy which is why I couldn't get an appointment before my Ontario insurance expired on November 19. I didn't renew it because I didn't realize I would have this problem - tow trucks refusing uninsured cars is a surprise to me. How do you transport an uninsured car, like when you bring a trailer and buy a car from some person? One idea I had is to rent a truck + car trailer from U-Haul and use that to get my Ranger to all the places it needs to be. But the fact that tow trucks can't pick up uninsured cars makes me wonder if my car has to be insured to put it on a U-Haul trailer. Does anybody have any experience with uninsured cars on trailers? How do junkyards that pick up cars handle this? Lots of what they pick up must be uninsured. I'm open to any ideas people might have. I'm going away for three weeks over christmas and part of me just wants to leave this problem until next year.
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Dec 1, 2017 23:30
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Update on my hosed-by-insurance-weirdness Ranger: this morning my mechanic called a tow truck company he knows, which plucked my truck from the horns of this dilemma (probably). Today the front brake rotors and one front wheel bearing will be replaced, and he'll try to install the replacemnt fog lights I bought (a separate tale of my incompentence). That will take care of 5/6 issues preventing me from registering this truck in this province; for the obscured "cyclop" (high-mount centre brake light) I'm going to remove the cap for the re-inspection. The big weird twist in this story is that (most) tow trucks will not pick up a car that does not have valid insurance. There are obvious questions here, like how do they deal with the uninsured vehicles that they must get called to all the drat time? but nobody I've talked to has an answer for that one, yet. I've contacted the provincial motor vehicle department, maybe they will get back to me. My mechanic wanted me to just drive my truck to him, but I pointed out that the police would have very bad things to say to me if anything happened on that 1-km drive; his response included miming picking up the truck under my arm and carrying it to him, but he eventually called la depanneuse - this one was a big flat-bed so my truck was completely off of the ground. When I talked to CAA Quebec (the start of this) they specifically told me that yes, I had the option to request a flat-bed, but no, that makes no difference to the no-insurance rule. In any case, I want to TRY to solve this problem entirely legally if possible (it must be possible, right?). EDIT: That's my stupid question at the end - It must be possible, right? I am hopelessly naive, I know.
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Dec 4, 2017 17:08
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Godholio posted:How far does it have to go? I *could* take the gamble of driving to the inspection, but I *really* don't want to. My current plan is to have my truck dropped off at my apartment after this work (or, if the mechanic mocks my Anglo cowardice enough, drive it that 1km), and I'll sort out everything else I need to do (take off the cap, double-check all of the lights, book appointments) after I get back from my holidays. I bought this truck in Alberta about 2.5 years ago, and getting it registered in Ontario was much simpler - pretty much any mechanic can do the out-of-province inspection, and do the work needed to make it registerable. The only wrinkle in that process was I had to get my truck weighed - the very nice person at the Service Ontario office gave me directions to the dump, and the dump was happy to tell me my truck's weight for $10. But Quebec is different - I suspect this is an aspect of their "Distinct Society".
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Dec 4, 2017 18:01
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CheetoRamen posted:the best I say go for it.
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Dec 7, 2017 20:46
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My 1997 Ranger had a completely dead battery on the weekend. I called CAA, the towtruck driver checked the voltage and said it was reading 1.9V but he was able to get it running with a boost and I sat there running it for nearly an hour to charge it back up. He looked at and felt the battery then told me to have a look - my battery is toast, it's bulging on four sides. I bought it new from Canadian Tire in October and I have the receipt (somewhere, I know I didn't throw it out) so I'm planning to claim the warranty and just get a straight replacement. But I'm a little concerned that the reason this battery failed might be because it's not actually the correct battery for my truck. Yesterday night, the truck was completely dead again - not even a flicker from the dome light, and nothing at all on the instruments when I turned the key, nevermind starter noises. The Canadian Tire website lists a couple of 590CCA batteries in their house brand, Motomaster, including the one I bought a few months ago. But other websites list all 650CCA and higher batteries when I put in my truck's details - it has the 4.0L V6, NOT the 3.0L "Vulcan" that seems to have been put in many more Rangers, and I'm worried some store inventory software is making a mistake. The battery I took out of my truck in October had a higher rating, I can't remember the exact details but it was well over 600CCA (maybe 700? or 750?) and the battery itself was larger - about 2 inches longer in the direction that lines up with the front-rear axis of the vehicle when installed; the battery has to be a specific width to fit on the battery tray and be held down by the little clamp at the base. Various websites also list higher-CCA batteries, but for considerably higher prices, up around $250-$300 for the Optima batteries, for example. Weirdly, the link for a battery listed on a page will include "650CCA" but the description will say "Cold Cranking Amps: 850" or other numbers. Where would you look to confirm the correct battery characteristics if you don't trust the website of your local supplier? Where's a good place to read up on car batteries and how they work / are rated?
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Jan 23, 2018 16:15
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Geoj posted:The battery dying quickly after being deep cycled to ~2V is expected. Usually once a car battery goes a volt or two below 12 its toast. I'll pull the battery out tonight when I get home. Presumably I'll need to bring it to Canadian Tire to claim the warranty and get a replacement, but if it could rupture at any time I'd rather not be carrying it when that happens. How can I carry a bulging battery to dispose of it? I suppose I could get an acid-resistant bin, I have a couple of big Rubbermaid bins around that could easily hold it. Given it was drained to dead by 6 weeks of sitting still in winter (including temperatures as low as -30 C), what can I do to look for parasitic draw after I get a new battery? Just poke every connector and ground I find with a multimeter? Go through the fuse panel with the multimeter? I've never really worked on anything electrical on a car before, beyond simple replacement of things like batteries, fuses, and bulbs. EDIT: rdb, I didn't see your response while I was writing the above. Yeah, frozen seems possible given this place had a severe cold snap while I was away. But I've lived in wintery places for a while, and I've never had a problem with a battery getting permanently damaged by temperatures of -30 C and colder. They go dead at really cold temperatures, but they don't get broken and a new battery should always be able to crank the engine at -30. ExecuDork fucked around with this message at 17:26 on Jan 23, 2018 |
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Jan 23, 2018 17:23
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Godholio posted:Everything capable of towing has a tow rating. I just did this for my parents' car, a 2015 Ford Edge. Those blob-shaped pseudo-SUVs like the Edge or the Toyota Highlander (you know what I'm talking about, they're very popular among my parents' demographic, aging baby-boomers) are often built with towing in mind because the people who buy those vehicles also often have trailers (campers, typically). If you don't mind owning and driving something like that, it's a good vehicle category to start your search in. Mini-review of my parents' 2015 Edge: it's fine. I think it's boring to look at and boring to drive, but it's got great safety ratings and the seats are very comfortable, including in the back. On a big highway it glides along without any drama. If you narrow your options down to just a few vehicles, follow up with some price estimates for having a proper set of towing hardware installed. From my limited experience, there are probably a dozen different businesses in your area that will sell and install a tow package to you, but for wildly different prices, and the year/make/model of the tow vehicle can be a big factor. You asked specifically about tongue weight. That's usually just 10% of the maximum towing capacity, because you're supposed to load a trailer such that about 10% of the weight is resting on the tongue/hitch. I doubt your motorcycle + trailer would weigh anywhere close to the 3500 pound maximum of the Ford Edge, so it shouldn't put anywhere close to 350 pounds onto the tongue/hitch.
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Jan 26, 2018 17:03
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I would absolutely put jackstands under the engine if I was changing the mounts. A jack is inherently unstable, it's a single point of contact. Jacks slip, jacks fail, jacks hate you and want to kill you. Buy a few more jackstands and be safe and happy. I can re-post the story from the Emergency Room nurse about the patient who accidentally parked his Honda on his own face if somebody needs that reminder.
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Jan 30, 2018 21:35
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Metal Geir Skogul posted:I'm having a really difficult time parsing these picture. Me too. Professor Shark, can you draw on a picture with MS Paint or something, show us where you think you damaged it? It's really uncommon for people to damage their car scraping ice off of it. Literally millions of people do it every time it snows, so basically SOMEBODY is scraping their windows at all times between October and April. Yet you don't hear about auto-glass shops getting swamped when it's icy - their seasonal business picks up in the spring, when the gravel previously spread on icy roads gets tossed at every car following every big truck. ExecuDork fucked around with this message at 21:11 on Feb 1, 2018 |
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Feb 1, 2018 21:08
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wesleywillis posted:How the gently caress does Audi score better than Toyota? Passion of the owners. "You own a Toyota. What do you think of it?" "Yeah, I like it a lot!" "You own an Audi. What do you think of it?" "FUCKEN JAVOL MOTHERFUCKERS MY AUDI RULES ALL!!!!" *Quatro AWD explodes* Also price. You paid $25K for your Toyota and that's fine. You paid $50K for your Audi and you MUST justify that, every day, to everybody (especially yourself).
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Feb 5, 2018 17:22
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1997 Ford Ranger XLT 4x4 I've been thinking about adding a roof rack to the topper for my Ranger. This would make hauling my GF's canoe a bit easier and maybe help with moving her from Regina to here in Quebec in May. Our current plan is for me to drive to Regina, pick up her, her stuff, and a rental UHaul trailer (the 4x8). Her stuff includes a canoe which we have already put on top of my truck without any problems, and a bicycle that might or might not fit inside either the back of the truck or the trailer, given those spaces will also be full of stuff. I guess I have 2 questions: 1) Can I just bolt whatever roof rack to the top of my truck topper? I think I could put something together at Home Depot if it doesn't need to fit the curves of a specific vehicle. The topper is not a high-low, it's flat and when on the truck the roof is the same level as the roof of the cab. It's a cheap piece of fibreglass and it already leaks water in when it rains (mostly around the windows) so a few small holes in the roof won't make a difference. But I don't know about structural and weight considerations. There's a topper with basic bars on top available on Kijiji here for free, but it's got a broken back window and I already have a topper. The alternative is to find the kind of rack that goes around the outside of my topper. New, those are around $250-$300 from a quick google, and maybe one will show up used in the next few months. Total weight to carry on the rack (and it would be reasonably evenly distributed) is on the order of 150 pounds, plus whatever aerodynamic effects (minimal for the canoe, maybe more for the bike?). 2) Does a bike rack exist that mounts on the trailer hitch but still allows me to pull a trailer? Or, even if such a thing were possible, would that be a really bad idea for some reason?
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Feb 8, 2018 16:13
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Breakfast Feud posted:I've seen people mount a bike rack to a trailer, if that's any help. I have OPINIONS about putting canoes on vehicles, but this isn't the place for that. Certainly, yes, the canoe will be tied to the truck, not just to the topper/rack.
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Feb 9, 2018 16:36
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EightBit posted:As someone that frequently straps kayaks to roof racks, would you mind going over your opinions? These opinions come from my fiancee, it's her boat. We've gone on about half-a-dozen canoe trips so far, and put that canoe (and one other) onto a few vehicles. You absolutely need to secure the boat to the car very thoroughly, because 100 km/h on the highway will push that boat all over the place and any movement is bad. I don't care that you're only going 1/2 mile, tie that loving thing up!  Canoodling my Bimmer 1 by Martin Brummell, on FlickrHere's her boat on the BMW I used to have; note the lack of a roof rack. You can click through and read my comment under the photo, but the basic idea is the boat has jumbo pool noodles fitted over the gunwales (sliced down their lengths, carved cut-outs for the thwart) to provide a pad between the boat and the car. The boat is held tightly against the car (slightly deforming the roof; the sunroof still kinda worked) by a large ratchet strap, and that strap meets up with itself inside the car; we tie the excess strap up out of the way in the back seat.  SD 091 3 by Martin Brummell, on FlickrHere's a view of the hanging strap (tied off to prevent slipping) from my fiancee's old car, a Ranger very similar to the one I currently own. At the front of the vehicle, there are two ropes that come down to the front corners of the car. There is ALWAYS a place to tie on a rope on a car. On the BMW we'd lift the hood and tie on to the rail that holds the top of the radiator, just inside. At the back, it's the same story - on the BMW we tied on to the trunk lid hinges. On my Ranger the two tail ropes go almost straight down to the trailer hitch, we tie on to the loops on the side of the hitch for the safety chains. Some cars have more obvious tie-down points than others, but no car is completely without appropriate hardpoints. This is what the front tie-downs look like from the driver's seat (this is the BMW).  Wayne to Rosedale (3 of 11) by Martin Brummell, on FlickrThe view shouldn't be significantly obstructed at all. It's a matter of shoving the boat forward and back before you tighten the ratchet strap, and getting everything lined up straight. Because you drive from one side of the car rather than the middle it always looks like the boat is crooked but if you're outside you can see how it's lined up. You asked about a kayak on a rack, though, which changes a few things but the main message is the same: Tie that thing down, front and back. Aerodynamics will shove the front end sideways at highway speeds (hell, that'll happen at suburban street speeds) no matter how good your center strap (or pair of straps fairly close together) is held down. We borrowed a friend's Subaru, to which he had recently added both a rack and a cargo cage thing. That worked *really* well, the extra height meant the boat hardly took up any of the view from the driver's seat, and made it possible to open the tailgate at least a little.  Day 5 Savanna and Canoe by Martin Brummell, on Flickr(the car's name was Savanna) It's hard to see in this picture but we didn't use the ratchet strap for this one. Two ropes hold the canoe down on the roof cage, with two more at each end. The rear ropes are nearly parallel and tie on to the trailer hitch, the front ropes form that VERY NECESSARY V-shape and were tied to the front bumper. The key thing is to learn how to tie proper knots. I don't know all the names of all of the knots, and I couldn't explain how to tie them without holding the rope in my hands, but you can very easily apply just two critical ones to your boats and not worry about it: bowline (loop around solid object, like the thwart of the canoe) and a trucker's hitch that lets you pull down as hard as you want to tighten before securing it with a set of half-hitches.  Rope Skills by Martin Brummell, on FlickrThis is a trucker's hitch with half-hitches I used to set up a clothesline inside the tent I lived in for a summer. I was quite proud of myself for remembering how to do it, I think it only took me five or six tries to get it. I've never tried to put a kayak on a car, just canoes, and if you have a rack already the padding from the pool noodles is unnecessary anyway. Just think about the direction of forces acting on the boat while you're driving, and have ropes providing tension to resist movement in those directions. I find it helpful to imagine the boat as an airplane tied to the car - it can roll (slide off the roof to one side), pitch (front or back moves up or down), and yaw (front or back pivots sideways). The big strap holds it in place and keeps things from bouncing around too much, and controls roll. The front and back ropes stop pitch (both are necessary because the ropes can't stop their end coming down) and yaw (the V-shape at the front). If your kayak is really short and light you might get away with just a pair of over-the-top straps, but I would always go with the fore-and-aft pairs in any case. Rope is cheap and widely available, and beats having your boat fall off. I have put one canoe at a time on my truck sans rack, but for the upcoming move I'm considering adding a rack to the topper so I can carry both the boat and my fiancee's bicycle up there. Without a rack, there's really only a way to attach one object, and with a rack I could potentially carry two canoes (so my fiancee and I could bring some friends on a trip).  Tarrandus and her summer shoes by Martin Brummell, on FlickrI don't have a picture of my Ranger wearing a canoe on my Flickr, yet. Those pictures are still buried on a harddrive for now. Ethics_Gradient posted:A bit off topic but grab some silicone rubber sealant for those leaky windows. Good idea, thanks! Sooner or later I'll dig the topper out of the snowbank (it's leaning up against a fence in the parking lot of my building) and put it back on my truck - I had to take it off to pass out-of-province inspection because it blocks the "cyclop", the high centre-mount brakelight. tactlessbastard posted:I wad driving to a job interview in Kansas and I passed a guy with a kayak on his roof rack and I was like who are you kidding dude where are you going ExecuDork fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Feb 10, 2018 |
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Feb 9, 2018 23:59
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EightBit posted:Man, you guys are doing canoe/kayak tie downs the hard way. Do your boats not have hard tie down points that you can run a ratchet strap through? My Ranger is old enough to drink in the States, and I absolutely treat it like crap and literally bash on it with a big dumb hammer. But I don't want to create new places for the rust monster to dig in, and I don't want to build up any bad habits for the next time I put a boat on a nice car. Where rope bends over a part of the bodywork I'll pad the contact point with a bit of scrap leather held in place with duct tape (to the rope, not to a painted surface!). All bets are off if you're putting a bunch of boats on a trailer. Ratchet straps would make standardization across the entire load easier, and probably quicker to set up and take down. Dennis McClaren posted:While driving everything is fine, except the RED battery light wont go off. I dont want more issues down the road with this. Any suggestions? Today I'm all about the tieing things down.
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Feb 12, 2018 18:04
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Swapping out a seat for a junkyard replacement is very easy. Four bolts underneath some clipped-on plastic covers (pry off with screwdriver), plus an electrical connector for the wear-your-seatbelt-reminder thing. The hardest part is getting the old one out and the 'new' one in without scratching the interior or the paint with a protruding metal part. Fortunately, you get a chance to practice on something nobody cares about: take the seat out of the JY wreck, and try out different ideas for all the tricky parts. If you mess up or find a seat with terrible problems (not unlikely in a JY), find another or just walk away. Get kneepads or a foam cushion, most of the work happens on your knees. ExecuDork fucked around with this message at 17:00 on Feb 16, 2018 |
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Feb 16, 2018 16:58
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Deteriorata posted:Automotive wiring is extremely complex and time-consuming. If you're going to pay somebody $100/hr to work on it, you'd better have a deep checking account. This. Years ago I had weird mysterious electrical gremlins (is there any other kind?) that ended up getting traced to the trailer hitch wires, which had been crushed and were intermittently shorting. The shop that did it for me took pity on poverty-stricken student me, and stopped adding charges when the bill hit $1000. They told me the hours they put in would have been worth about twice that. Ask the person who told you about the mess what, specifically, looks the nastiest. A new alternator, and new spark plug wires (and new plugs), and maybe new battery cables or at least the terminals will clean things up from a functional point of view much more than an expensive and mostly aesthetic tidying up of random wiring. spankmeister posted:So what's changed that this kind of tech that has apparently been around for over 20 years is now gaining traction? I think another big factor is the continually shifting targets for things like fuel consumption and pollution output (not just CO2, look at NOx regulations for diesels). It's worth it to develop some oddball technologies if they're going to help you hit California's mandates set to kick in 15 years from now.
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Feb 19, 2018 16:07
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Any mechanic should have chops to do battery and alternator (and starter, too. These are the unholy trinity of car electricals). Replacing 1, 2, or all 3 on any car is pretty common. Ask for a quote, and go with the median hourly shop rate combined with a response that includes an acknowledgement of the uncertainties. They *might* need to deal with other things once they get in there, and will call you to confirm before they proceed with anything beyond the initial service request.
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Feb 22, 2018 01:18
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spog posted:The fake sharkfin aerial on my Saab 9-3 convertible has come off. It looks like the foam pad has separated. Option 4: replace that boring thing with something better. It's basically decorative with a "function" a brick could do, so all you need is something approximately the same size as that fake sharkfin and suitable for a bumper for your roof (so, not a knife blade, then). When the Superior German Adhesive holding my BMW hood ornament roundel failed on the highway, I replaced it with a plastic dinosaur skull.  SD 103 53 by Martin Brummell, on FlickrLater, I had to re-assemble and reinforce it after the upper part separated from the lower (fortunately, not at speed, in my hand when I was closing the hood - "that looks loose" *pop*) and I painted it "bone white" (spray paint is fun).  SD 127 Car Appearance by Martin Brummell, on FlickrI *should have* attached it directly to the hood with bolts, but what I did was wire and screw it to the plastic plate that held the original roundel. It fits into a pair of holes in the hood, and stays in place by friction. With much more air resistance, this failed after a few months, again at speed on a highway. I haven't found something suitable to attach to my Ranger's silly front 'wildlife tenderizer' / winch mount, yet.
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Feb 26, 2018 05:40
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I have had a long and difficult relationship with tires. I never seem to get the tires I really want, usually due to time constraints. The one time I got tires I was truly happy with, the car they were for died. Buy 2 new tires for the back. Spend more than you think you have to, don't get the cheapest, nastiest poo poo they have, get something good.
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Feb 27, 2018 21:10
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spog posted:Perhaps I should use this opportunity to creatively express myself. spog posted:It's used for the optional car phone which apparently was something of a rarity. I have formed an idea. Glue an old Nokia to your car. Say "No, it's Finnish" when people talk about your Swedish car
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Feb 27, 2018 23:08
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spankmeister posted:I got myself a cheap oil pump for changing oil through the dipstick. Should be a time saver not having to crawl around under the car and whatnot. alnilam posted:What is the point of the button that turns the cruise control system on and off? Does the system consume much power? Did it used to? Is it a historical/legacy thing? And seconding white lithium grease - that stuff is just generally useful. I put it on all sorts of things, like the slides/rollers for sliding doors in my apartment.
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Mar 12, 2018 22:26
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alnilam posted:Also some credit cards offer insurance on rentals as a benefit. Mine does. I call them every time I'm going to rent a car just to be 100% sure, and they always say "Yes, absolutely, 100%, do not pay anything extra for this to anybody, you are already covered". They DO NOT cover a rented trailer, though. Anything that falls into the category "Equipment" is not covered by my credit card. Father Jack posted:This too.
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Mar 14, 2018 21:32
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kid sinister posted:So my truck still has a weird idle, 1988 F150 5.0L.
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Mar 15, 2018 21:53
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GnarlyCharlie4u posted:Brake booster leak? I've never had luck with the propane trick before. If I start it and let it run long enough that the rolling idle settles down, then pull the vacuum hose off the brake booster, what should I expect? I've done that with other cars for other reasons and they would surge and roll very strongly, if my truck doesn't do that does it mean the brake booster (or the hose) is the leak? Is the logic of testing vacuum lines similar to electrical, disconnect them one at a time and see what happens?
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Mar 15, 2018 23:00
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GnarlyCharlie4u posted:Edit: are you getting any engine codes? Thanks for bringing up the HVAC system. It hasn't been blowing as hot as it used to (a pretty subjective measure, but last winter I never had it at 100% hot), which I hadn't considered might be related to the rolling idle problem. I hope the weather is decent tomorrow.
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Mar 16, 2018 15:34
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Dead odometer: check the oil regularly (every time you fill the gas tank), and look at the colour of the oil on the dipstick. If it looks like fresh oil, you're good. If it's black but not chunky, work out a good time to change the oil in the near-ish future. If it's chunky, change it now.
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Mar 17, 2018 04:17
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El Grillo posted:(on an advanced driving course that's modelled off the UK police driving course - don't ask) Nope. I'm asking - did you take a police driving course? Sounds like fun, how was it?
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Mar 19, 2018 20:25
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Josh Lyman posted:Continuing to prep for towing a U-Haul trailer 650 miles with my 2008 Prius, I installed the ball onto the hitch receiver, but it says to tighten to 160 lb-ft and I don’t have a torque wrench. However, if the lock washer is fully flat, that’s probably a good sign, right? Using a channellock on the base of the ball and a large adjustable wrench for the nut, I’ve tried to put my body weight into it and it won’t tighten anymore. Everything is Curt including the hitch (installed by previous owner), the ball mount, the ball, and the wiring harness. The ball coming loose isn't what worries me when towing. I'm much more paranoid about the safety chains, the electrical connection (I want 100% functional brake lights and turn signals), and the trailer's tires. There are lots of horror stories about pulling U-haul trailers out there, but nobody bothers to write an angry blog post about their boring trip where nothing bad happened. In my experience, even the toothless part-time employee at the U-haul franchise in the back of the independent garage has done a good enough job of setting up the trailer for me. smax posted:This, but I will add that you’ll never be able to hold on to the channel locks tightly enough to get to 160ft-lbs. Get an actual wrench that’s sized to the ball.
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Mar 22, 2018 18:26
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Dennis McClaren posted:The wheel would not come off. The only time I've had wheels just pop off is when I'm doing something to a wheel a week after my mechanic had it up in the air for some reason. Otherwise, it always takes a few hard kicks and usually a few good whacks with a mallet. You aren't going to hurt a wheel or tire by kicking it or smacking it with a mallet. If you have fancy rims or super-stretched tires or something, maybe you have to be careful, but I can put everything into smacking the sidewall with a hard rubber mallet and nothing is going to be hurt. Tires are made of rubber and are inflated with air, but that's the end of their similarities with fragile things.
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Mar 29, 2018 15:02
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JibbaJabberwocky posted:The question is this: we're going to be getting him a newer used car next year, probably something just a few years old. Is it worth it to fix the stupid O2 sensor and the cosmetic damage to the front when fixed it would only be worth like $2000-2500? I'm feeling like we'd already be close to that in repairs. If we don't fix it, how do you go about selling such a lovely car? I doubt you'd get $2K out of your car if it was in better shape (i.e. no body damage, no check engine light, acceptable O2 sensor etc.). You didn't say what model of Toyota it is, so I'm assuming it's a Corolla, but even an Avalon would be hard to justify $2500 on when it's 16 years old. When you're ready to sell it, put it on Craigslist (or equivalent, I dunno where you are) for $1500 or best offer (or pick another number that you're OK with, keeping in mind it's the opening to a negotiation and you won't actually receive that amount). Post GOOD pictures, and be honest about the issues. Then deal with the inevitable CL shittiness (I suggest vodka) until somebody takes it off your hands and you never have to think about it ever again. If it doesn't move after some time limit (a few weeks?), phone around your local junkyards and take the best combination of they-pick-it-up and cashmoney. A running, licensed and insured car with issues is worth a few hundred bucks at most JYs. If you drive it to one and take the cash at the gate, you'll get a bit more. Bring whatever tools you need to remove the license plates. Alternatively, this is tax season, so perhaps this is already on your mind: if you donate it to something like the Kidney Foundation (many charities take cars) you'll get a nice big donation receipt that you can apply to next year's taxes. That might or might not be worth it to you.
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Apr 2, 2018 16:06
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Martytoof posted:Where can I find the pinout for a Ford 2007 F150 wiper motor? I don't actually have an F150 but I want to use the wiper motor for a project and I'm having an uncomfortably difficult time finding this simple information. I gather this motor was used across a number of mid-2000 Fords. Part number is 2L2F-17D539-AD. I'd rather not buy a Haynes manual just to figure this out :[
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Apr 3, 2018 21:27
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Koaxke posted:I'll do this once I get home from work and report back. Should I just use some fine grain sandpaper to clean them, or what would you recommend? It's also a good idea to take the wire terminals off of the wires and clean them and the ends of the wires thoroughly. Replacement terminals are not expensive, like $8 for a pair, and they tend to be much heavier-duty and easier to work with than the OEM terminals. I had a loose and badly corroded negative terminal last fall and I was able to solve that problem for $12 and 15 minutes of work.
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Apr 17, 2018 15:17
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