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Yeah I'm betting the "dimples" are actually a slightly thicker spot of plastic on the bumper, and you can just go right into them with decently big-threaded screws and no worries. If you're really concerned, though, I'd find your closest California scion dealership and give them a call. Probably you can just bring your car there and get them to install it for free. Especially if you let them put one of their dealership surrounds behind the plate.
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Aug 5, 2015 18:47
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rdb posted:Don't let anyone fool you, the Toyota dealer makes thier money in the service department. They rely on owners not being educated about the maintenance of thier own vehicles, and the false pretence that only the Toyota dealer can make the proper fix with only Toyota certified parts, fluids and special tools. There probably is an oil leak(the dealer would be breaking the law by attempting to sell the service otherwise), but its miniscule and won't cause issues. Take it somewhere else for an honest opinion, or post pictures here. I'm gonna second all this but go a step further. If a car is out of warranty, you shouldn't take it to the dealership for anything other than a recall. Exceptions: if you drive a high-end luxury vehicle like a mercedes or something, and you are very rich. The Prius has that magical hybrid drivetrain, though! Surely only the experts at Toyota can service it, right? No, definitely not. They've sold a bajillion of the things and most mechanics have had training and done plenty of work on them. Find a reputable local independent mechanic and stop paying dealership prices for work that will probably be done better, by someone with more knowledge and experience, for something like half the price or less.
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Aug 12, 2015 03:58
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Neitherman posted:I've got a 2007 Nissan Altima with about 130k miles on it. I bought it brand new and it started out getting about 35 mpg (according to the dash monitor) on the highway and around 27 mpg (again, according to the dash monitor) on surface streets. Lately I'm getting about 25 mpg highway and 20 mpg surface streets. What gives? I think I'm missing some routine maintenance thing here that would vastly help these numbers, unless the mpg just goes down with the age of the car (which does seem possible in my limited scope of knowledge about cars). What is the condition of your tires, and have you inflated them to the car's spec (usually on a sticker in the driver's door frame)? What fuel are you running? Have you had any check engine lights? When was the last time someone inspected your brakes (such as to see if they're dragging)? How much weight do you have in the car? When was the last time you had an alignment? There are a lot of factors that could hurt mileage. Some of them have to do with the engine - it might need some maintenance, like plugs, wires, cap & rotor. You might have a failing transmission. But it's best to start with the low-hanging fruit. Oh, and try measuring the mileage yourself. Next time you fill the tank, reset the trip meter. Then the time after that, take note of how much fuel you put into the tank to fill it back up, and divide by the number of miles you drove, to get an actual measured MPG. Maybe your computer isn't working right.
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Aug 14, 2015 06:00
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Morter posted:Would this be a place to ask for car buying advice? In particular, I know what I want--looking at a specific car in a specific dealership-- but I've never been to a dealership before, and I want to know what I'm getting into before I do it. AI meets BFC: Car Buying Thread: No Rentals and No Salvage Titles is the best thread on SA for car-buying advice.
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Aug 26, 2015 18:48
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It may not go over 40 because the computer has set it to limp mode. Get the check engine light code read (you can do it for free at any Autozone not in California) and we can tell you more. Without a code, or any sort of diagnosis, it's tough to know if this is a catastrophic failure of your transmission, ($$$$) or just a dead sensor ($) or something.
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Aug 28, 2015 19:48
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What is your car? There's a very good chance that's not metal under the paint there.
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Sep 4, 2015 22:27
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flyboi posted:So I ended up getting a X3 diesel to replace my car. I've never owned a diesel before. Living in South Dakota should I be using 1 or 2? They gave me some additive I can put in the fuel during the winter to keep it from freezing but I got confused when they were explaining the differences and which to use and forgot which of the 2 they wanted me to use. Read your owner's manual.
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Sep 4, 2015 22:49
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This might be something you already know, but are you checking alternator function by actually driving the vehicle at least 30mph or so? Or revving the engine up significantly? Many alternators do not produce a charge at idle.
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Oct 16, 2015 21:51
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Exactly what failed on the emissions test? The specifics matter.
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Oct 19, 2015 23:12
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If he's damaging every car he lifts, he hasn't got a loving clue how to safely lift cars. The areas along the sill between the wheels are pinch welds. Most vehicles have specific lift points along those welds that are reinforced, and you can also opt to use special tops to a jack or lift to grip both sides of the pinch weld so it isn't damaged. This is what it looks like for a normal shop jack:  I'm sure they make similar adapters for lifts for when you're not just lifting the car with its tires, although I usually see floor lifts with arms that reach further under the car to support it from other structural members. Regardless, if the shop can't safely lift a car without damaging it for whatever reason, they should decline to perform the service rather than just saying "gently caress it most customers don't notice" and crushing the pinch welds.
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Oct 28, 2015 02:29
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1992 Chevy S10 4.3l V6 automatic extended cab longbed 2WD. Oh and it's green. My brother got into a very minor fender bender on Friday: busted a headlight, broke the chevy bowtie emblem on the front, cracked the plastic grille, and that's about it. He brought it over to my place and when we went to take the truck to the hardware store, reverse wasn't working. I could shift into reverse, the reverse light came on, but no power, it acted like it was in neutral. Driving in Overdrive, the engine was also revving higher than normal before shifting into second gear. My brother says he's certain reverse was working when he backed out of his parking spot at his apartment before coming over to my place. Today I looked under the truck and there's a slow transmission fluid leak. Please see this brief video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw1CwFdL4lA You are looking from the driver's side, with the front of the truck to the left. The truck has about 225k miles on the original transmission and engine. It's probably not had a transmission fluid change in at least 100k miles, although the fluid looks normal. Best guess: is this just a seal on the linkage leaking and I can have it fixed cheap? Or is it more likely the transmission is done? How much is a new/refurbished/junkyard replacement transmission on this truck? I do most repairs myself but I've never dropped a tranny before, and my brother needs this truck to get to work so I have to get it back on the road as quickly as possible, which probably means taking it to my mechanic on Monday.
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Nov 8, 2015 01:55
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xmission fluid dipstick shows full when cold, although it says to check hot. I don't think this truck has a cooler for the transmission but I'll check - in any case, it really seems like the damage is extremely light. There's no bent metal whatsoever. If I need to top up the fluid, where is the plug or whatever where I add it? I could just stick a funnel into the transmission fluid dipstick I suppose.
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Nov 8, 2015 02:26
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Leperflesh posted:xmission fluid dipstick shows full when cold, although it says to check hot. I don't think this truck has a cooler for the transmission but I'll check - in any case, it really seems like the damage is extremely light. There's no bent metal whatsoever. Following up. Although there's a very very slow leak, the transmission was full at hot. My mechanic did not find anything obviously wrong, but based on symptoms he referred me to a transmission specialist. I took the truck there today and based on symptoms and age, he thinks it's like a 90% chance the transmission is shot, but tomorrow he's going to drop the transmission pan to look for bits and pieces of gears - whatever he finds in the pan will tell me for sure. It's not worth having a shop replace or rebuild the tranny in this truck, but in order to not send it to the junk yard (especially after spending a fair amount recently doing other work on it) I'm willing to try replacing it myself. I have garage space, ramps and heavy duty jack stands, a floor jack, sockets, an impact driver and impact sockets, and a certain dogged determination. What I'm struggling with right now is identifying the actual transmission in the truck: made more difficult by not having it here for me to get under and look. I am certain that it either has a 4L60e or a 700r4. I'm finding conflicting information online as to whether my truck came with the older one or the newer. For reference, it is a 1992 Chevy S10 with the 4.3l V6, 4x2 configuration. Some charts insist the 4L60e started with the 1993 model, while others say it was used in 1992. Can anyone definitively state that one or the other was used in this year for this truck? Secondly: how hard is it to replace a transmission in these trucks? At first glance it seems like there's not a lot in the way. I assume I'd need to drain it, put the truck up on jackstands or ramps, disconnect a bunch of stuff (cooler lines, shift linkage, speedometer link, anything else?) and then unbolt it from the engine and from the transaxle. Lower old transmission, raise new transmission, bolt up, reconnect stuff, fill with fluid, and I'm done? Where is the best place to get an inexpensive transmission? I see a bunch on ebay ranging from $350 for a high-mileage pull to $750+ for a lower-mileage pull, but these seem to mostly be untouched other than being pulled from a truck. I see this is a popular transmission for swaps into jeeps, there's lots of built transmissions to handle higher-power output applications, etc. but I just need my truck to go for a while, I don't tow things, and the engine from the factory put out just like 230HP or something. I need a transmission that will work, I'm willing to replace seals and gaskets and stuff, I need to keep my total costs reasonable (this is a truck with 220k miles on it, it's got dents and scratches and the paint looks like hell, it has other random small stuff broken, the A/C has been removed, and the engine is original and has never been opened up. But it's a workhorse truck and if I junk it I'll probably have to pay $6k+ to buy a decent newer truck to replace it.) I don't want to pay $2500 for a shop to do a transmission swap but if it's so expensive (at $160/hr for labor, holy poo poo) it can't be as simple as I'm imagining it, can it? Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 08:08 on Nov 10, 2015 |
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Nov 10, 2015 08:04
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Supposing it's a 4L60e, can I put any 4x2 4L60e in, including ones from newer vehicles, or does it need to be the specific one from a 92 S10/Blazer? I've pulled parts at several local junkyards and while I almost always can find an 86-93 S10/Blazer or five, I've never found another 92 specifically... and the 91s and earlier are definitely the older 700R4.
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Nov 10, 2015 09:04
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the computer wont make it shift wrong or something? Ok cool, that will make it a lot easier to find one with decently lower mileage on it. Thanks!
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Nov 10, 2015 10:04
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I got the word back from the transmission shop. My transmission has "excessive metal in the fluid", the fluid "looks like chocolate syrup", the "belt is flopping around loose inside", and the transmission is therefore "toast, it's done." Along with replacing the tranny, I'd need to flush or replace the cooler and lines. I am thinking about it but it also occurs to me that this truck's engine is just as old: 220k miles and never cracked open. It burns a little oil. If I put a ton of effort and several hundred dollars into replacing the transmission, how much longer is it going to run before I have to do the engine as well? It's an iffy proposition. We're gonna have to think about it carefully. It's easy to be sentimentally attached to a vehicle you've owned for 15 years and put 160k miles in, but... maybe it's time for a much newer, more reliable vehicle instead. 
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Nov 10, 2015 20:36
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InitialDave posted:What is it? Some brands will happily eat four transmissions in the time it takes the engine to start getting a little tappety. Chevy fuel injected 4.3l V6, 1992, 220k miles. It's consuming oil just a little bit - blows some blue smoke at startup. I'm running thicker oil to compensate. This is a non-turbo TBI version (engine code Z).
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Nov 10, 2015 21:50
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Assume it's just stem seals. Could I reasonably get 100k more miles out of this engine, before it'd need a teardown or replacement?
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Nov 10, 2015 23:58
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Wiper blades last a hell of a lot longer if you actually clean them. They accumulate road grit that sticks to the rubber blades, and that not only helps them dry out and crack, it also adds to the friction of dragging them up and down your window (especially when it's not fully lubricated with water) and furthermore scrapes that poo poo across your glass, abrading it too. Use a wet soapy paper towel or shop towel to wipe the rubber blades clean every time you clean your window/wash your car and you'll extend the life of your blades by a lot. When I figured out to start doing that, my blades started lasting more like three years instead of one (in California, your results may vary).
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Nov 12, 2015 20:10
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Spikes32 posted:It came down to him asserting that the manufacturer built the car for 88 octane and is only saying 87 in the manual to cause more wear and tear. He's got a lot of rants in general, but is an excellent mechanic who refuses to sell me services and repairs I don't need and explains why every time. Which is why I wasn't quite sure if I should believe him or not. A higher octane fuel does not "save wear and tear." Essentially the rating indicates how readily combustible the fuel is. High-compression engines need a higher (less-combustible) fuel to avoid "pre-ignition" which is also called pinging, and is bad for the engine. But: 1. every auto manufacturer knows perfectly well that 88 octane fuel isn't universally available... none of them would design an engine that can't tolerate a deviation of 1 or 2 octane in either direction 2. high altitude areas have different fuel mixes, so do cold weather areas, so do states with ethanol additives, and so on 3. modern mass-produced car engines are very robust and long-lived and are designed to handle a wide variety of suboptimal performance conditions without a problem 4. modern high-compression-engined cars have computers that detect pinging and are capable of de-tuning to handle running on a lower-octane fuel, automatically avoiding the damage, because drivers are idiots and put the wrong fuel into their car even when it very clearly says to only use high-octane fuel, and doing this is a lot easier than dealing with thousands of in-warranty engine replacements due to said idiots blowing up their engines. When a car that wants higher octane is doing #4, fuel efficiency (and power) may drop. But the difference between 87 octane and 88 or 89 octane is really not that big, and as I said, the car is not damaging the engine by running one octane lighter. So either your car wants 88 (and would say so in the manual) and is thus getting slightly worse mileage on 87, OR your car is fine on 87, but in neither case is your car damaging itself and Mazda is definitely not part of a giant conspiracy to make people's engines ping and destroy themselves if they happen to live in an area where only 87 and 89 octane gas are available and choose to run the factory-recommended octane.
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Nov 19, 2015 02:17
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Invest in ramps. You can't use them when you need to take a tire off of course, but when you're just changing oil or something, ramps are great. It's still possible for a car on ramps to fall over but it's a looot harder.
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Nov 24, 2015 22:21
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OMGVBFLOL posted:I should have taken pictures with some sort of scale reference, sorry. The part missing paint is thumbnail-sized. The metal's deformed inward a quarter- to a half-inch. The total width of the deep deformation is about two inches, with some slight deformation for about an inch to either side. It wasn't airsoft or a paintball. Amica gives me 30 days to make a claim. But, you do not have to actually get the work done nust because you made a claim! The adjuster estimates the cost of repair, the insurer takes that amount, subtracts your deductible, and you can then either get it repaired (and if the cost winds up being higher than their estimate, they have to cover the additional cost), or, you can simply have the insurer cut you a check. So file a claim. You're not at fault, your premium won't go up. Take a check, and then pay to have it fixed properly at your own convenience.
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Dec 5, 2015 08:31
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Your best bet is to find a passenger seat from a commute vehicle. They tend to be in way better condition than the driver's side.
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Dec 20, 2015 08:00
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They look OK, but it's hard to tell from photos. Run your fingernail along the rotor from center to edge. If you can feel significant grooving, like it catches your fingernail and feels rough, then it's time for resurfacing or a new rotor, whichever is cheaper. These days replacing the rotors is usually cheaper than paying someone to turn/resurface them.
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Dec 21, 2015 23:03
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b0nes posted:I have a bunch of questions I assume you're in the US. 1. Just starting the car is inadequate for keeping the battery charged, and in fact you are probably slowly destroying the battery. It needs to be driven, fast enough for the alternator to actually produce a charge. Ten minutes a week where you hit 35 or 40mph at least once is adequate. Much better, though, is to buy and hook up a battery tender; this requires you be able to run an extension cord from an outlet to the car, though. Use an outdoor-rated cord. If the car is on a public road it must be insured. You can, however, park the car in a private place, and stop insurance. You can almost certainly get it insured within a few hours from any insurer: everyone in America who buys a car at a dealership and then drives it away within an hour or so, does this. Provided it's a weekday during business hours. You will also need a printer so you can print off an insurance card the insurer emails to you. There are also options for temporary or short-term insurance, including day-to-day insurance. Annualized, the rates would be terrible, but if you just need to insure a car for a few days a month, it's an affordable option that saves you money over maintaining a policy continuously. The car must be registered in order to legally drive it. You almost definitely cannot just register the car on the same day you want to drive it, and then re-register it non-op or de-register it or something. Generally states want a years' registration fee up front, but temporary registration is sometimes an option. Exact rules for registration vary from state to state. Here in California, for example, you can register a car as non-operable indefinitely for a small fee... which makes it easier to re-register as operable later. However a non-op registration does not allow you to park the car on public streets. You have to keep it on private property. It's also not legal to drive that way. 2. Yes, it matters. Some insurers are excellent about quickly evaluating and paying out a claim, while others are terrible. Some have great customer service, some suck. And exactly what is covered, beyond the state-required minimums, varies from one insurer to the next. Also, almost nobody should be driving with just the state-mandated minimum liability insurance. If you are in an accident with an expensive vehicle, or (especially) you cause a significant injury, once the liability limits on your lovely policy are met, you are personally liable for the rest. Considering medical treatment can easily run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, the state minimum liability coverages in the US are ridiculously inadequate. In addition, unless you're willing to just eat the cost of repairing or replacing your own vehicle and your own body in an accident, you should have basic collision and "uninsured motorist" coverage too. Often these add-ons are relatively cheap compared to the liability coverage. "But I can't afford insurance, it's expensive!" say a lot of people. Well, if you are struggling financially such that an extra hundred bucks a month or so in full coverage costs is going to be a serious hardship, then you are especially vulnerable financially to the costs of an accident in which your coverage proves inadequate. For some people, minimum liability makes sense, but for most people, it's really not good enough. Anyway. How much is your car worth? Is it OK with you if it gets stolen and you get nothing from your insurance? What if some drunk crashes into it and then flees the scene? Most likely if you have no offstreet parking, your best bet is to insure it properly, maintain it properly, and assume those costs as part of watching out for your brother. Or, your brother can get his poo poo together and fix his car, which is probably in the long run a lot cheaper for both of you.
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Dec 22, 2015 23:53
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Centripetal Horse posted:Some followers of my long-running GBS thread suggested I ask this in here: can anyone recommend a shop (or, maybe even better, an individual) to work on a car in the Las Vegas area? The short of it is that my car, which I am currently living in, needs to get me across the country to a new job. The car desperately needs attention before attempting a road trip of any length. The brakes on all four wheels are probably at the point of just gouging chunks of metal into one another, and the car has nothing left that could be reasonably called suspension. There are numerous other issues, as well. Someone help out Centripetal Horse. Wasn't there a goon in AI running his own shop in Vegas, but then he shut down the shop, but still does work? CH is homeless, he has a way out of his living-in-a-car and unable to get his heart condition treated predicament, but the job he just got is in Detroit and he has to get there ASAP. Here is CH's thread in GBS, if you want to catch up. I've been trying to advise him about his car but I'm just one AI goon, you guys are better experts than me.
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Dec 23, 2015 20:19
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A few of you will remember that I pulled, had rebuilt, and then reinstalled the 700R4 in my 92 chevy S-10 this summer. My wife noticed a couple weeks ago that when I put the truck into reverse, the reverse lights flash on but don't stay on. I'm not sure where to look first to diagnose this. Is there a plug on the transmission that could have a fouled wire? Or is it the position of the shifter (column shifter)? Or some wiring/fusebox fuckery? It's clearly not an actually severed connection or blown fuse since the lights do flash on, I just don't really know what the issue might be. Most likely it's been borked since I did the work, I wouldn't have noticed the reverse lights not staying on until someone outside the vehicle pointed it out.
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Nov 7, 2016 20:04
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Christobevii3 posted:Do they work with the truck turned off? Do both turn signal bulbs work. You can't put the truck in reverse while the engine is off. I could put the transmission in reverse while running and then shut off the engine, though. Brake lights and turn signals work fine. kastein posted:Could be something as simple as a broken wire near the trans (so when the drivetrain torques side to side due to shifting from D/N to R it flexes and makes contact briefly) or a bad reverse light switch or transmission range switch/neutral safety switch (not sure which one that tranny uses - probably a reverse light switch knowing GM?) that has gunked up contacts, too. I'll try to identify something like that. I know there's a multi-wired plug that plugs in at the rear end of the transmission, but otherwise, the connections are mechanical plus the TV cable, so I think that's the only wires to check. IOwnCalculus posted:If it's like the one on my C10, then yes there's some adjustment to the P/N switch, to deal with the generous "tolerances" in the linkage. Probably just need to tweak that, and also make sure it only starts in P and N. I have determined that this truck has a column-mounted backup lamp/neutral safety switch, most likely a "ratcheting self-adjusting" switch. In theory it might need to be adjusted or replaced, so I'll check it out. Yu-Gi-Ho! posted:IOC covered the linkage possibility (and that's very likely what it is), but if it winds up being the switch, it's listed as a neutral safety switch if you try to pick up a new one. Yeah, this guy. It's a cheap part (all the parts on this truck are cheap).
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Nov 9, 2016 23:06
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Raluek posted:Engine off, key on, don't start it, shift into reverse? Ohhh. The key in the On position, yeah I think that does work. I'll check it after work.
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Nov 10, 2016 01:34
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Yeah in CA even in a hit-and-run if there are no injuries and damage is below $750 you just file a report, you will not get an officer on-scene. Other states differ. You can however talk to the gas station immediately and ask them for video, they might cooperate. If you have "uninsured motorist" coverage in CA, that includes hit&run, but it depends on your coverage whether there's a deductible or not. My deductible is $500.
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Nov 11, 2016 19:33
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Xequecal posted:They found the lady that hit me. She has no insurance, (obviously) and I have a $500 deductible on uninsured motorist coverage so I'm stuck paying for the $350 headlight myself. In California, hit & run is a crime, even if nobody is injured. Are the cops charging her?
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Nov 14, 2016 02:11
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I want to replace the catalytic converter on my California, pre-ODBII truck (1992 chevy S10 4.3l NA V6). Rockauto lists two CARB-compliant cats. One of them is a Walker, and they link to this page: http://www.walkerexhaust.com/support/state-converter-installation-guidelines I have some questions: -Why do they say to pressure-test the coolant system? -There's some rules that the "installer" has to follow. Do I have to follow those rules if I do the work myself? -Is this really all there is to it, or are they missing anything important? I've heard that you have to install an OEM cat, but this is a 1992 vehicle, I doubt there is such a thing any more. If this is too much of a hassle I can get a mechanic to do it, but I already had the exhaust off last July so I know exactly what the work will entail and it's not that bad, and I can get a RockAuto cat for $175 which seems reasonable.
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May 12, 2017 00:08
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monsterzero posted:Nobody will ship converters to anyone other than licensed shops here. Ugh really? I haven't actually tried to check out with a CARB cat in my shopping cart yet, I wonder if RockAuto automatically detects this and refuses to sell it to me or something. e. Oh yeah I suppose the old one is worth something too, it's got platinum in it? I imagine selling a used cat looks super shady no matter how you do it, since they're often stolen. Maybe I'll just have my mechanic do it.
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May 12, 2017 00:30
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All vehicles made after 1974 have to pass CA smog checks every two years in all of the urban/suburban counties. My truck just failed smog. I have to fix a timing issue, but last time (two years ago) with the timing spot on, it only passed carbon emissions by 1 point, so it was already borderline. It ran rich for a couple of years due to the timing being off, and I'm pretty sure that burned out the cat. The cat itself is probably 20 years old, too. e, also regardless of having to pass smog, deleting OEM emissions equipment is illegal for cars driving on public roads in CA. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 01:27 on May 12, 2017 |
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May 12, 2017 01:25
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Yeah you do not need to make a 49-state car "compliant" unless it's brand new. But, if your 49-state car came with a catalytic converter, and you have deleted it, you will fail your smog check and be unable to register the car until you restore it to OEM condition. That doesn't exclude aftermarket cats, but you have to get a OEM-equivalent cat (CA CARB-compliant for 5-state cars), and, per my original question, apparently there are regs about documenting the source, install, and warranty on it. This also goes for other emissions equipment, e.g., you can't delete the evap cannister, EGR, etc. Trying to bring in and register car that's had an engine swap to something non-OEM is probably much harder? I'm not sure. I have not known cops to perform roadside inspections for CARB compliance. That's really not their job or interest, nor are they particularly qualified. I imagine a CHP officer pulling over a heavily riced out car for blatant speeding might take a quick look to see that it's got a straight pipe and tack that on to the charges, but I'm just speculating. CA, and in particular the Los Angeles basin, used to have the worst smog in the country. CA's CARB emissions rules were instrumental to cleaning up the horrible pollution, which was so bad that people with asthma were dying prematurely due to exposure to it. And, by forcing major automakers to comply to stricter than federal automaker rules (because the alternative is not selling their cars to roughly a fifth of the US market), the rest of the country has been dragged along into a cleaner environment as a side-effect. In many ways CA has modeled how to create regulations that the automakers can actually comply with despite their furious protests and foot-dragging. So CARB is, on balance, a good thing. However, it's also idiotic in many respects, because these are after all rules passed by politicians, not gearheads. It is particularly onerous and sometimes simply not possible to do engine swaps on 1974+ cars, even when the new engine would pollute less. The requirement to basically copy the OEM emissions equipment actually prevents a home hobbyist from improving the emissions equipment on a vehicle. That's perverse, but it stems from a desire to not force inspection stations to make comparative evaluations of emissions... today, they can look at the (legally required) emissions system diagram that is inside the hood of a CARB-compliant car, and verify that the equipment so described is present; and then run a sniffer, read the sensor data, pressure test the gas tank, etc. and verify that the equipment is functioning correctly. And then charge $70 for this 10 minutes of work. I'm not enjoying having to jump through hoops just to change my goddamn catalytic converter... but on balance, I'm really glad my environment isn't horribly polluted, my family members with athsma aren't seeing their lives shortened, and the carmakers were shown to be a pack of big fat liars when they all claimed there just wasn't any possible way they could clean up their cars, abloo bloo bloo.
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May 12, 2017 17:18
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I've had enough dead car batteries I'm never gonna buy a car I can't get into if the battery is dead.
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May 17, 2017 17:32
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kid sinister, if you do decide you need to drop your transmission, I suggest renting a proper transmission jack. You can buy a cheap one at harbor freight etc. but they're pretty junky, whereas a solid good one to handle a big truck transmission costs several hundred bucks. Monkeying around with straps and boards etc. can definitely work, but man... having the right tool for the job is almost always a better way to go. Call around to equipment rental places in your area. I was able to rent a transmission jack for $40, which was cheaper than buying a junk one but it gave me much better control (tilt, lift, roll, yaw, and so on) and was big and solid enough to never be in danger of tipping over. Whatever you do, don't be under the thing when it tips. Also even after you drain it and open the pan and drain it more, it's still got buckets of transmission fluid in it which will come blooshing out the tailstock as soon as you tip the tail downward, so be ready for that.
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May 21, 2017 20:42
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Oil filters are stupidly cheap and while a premium filter costs triple what a fram costs, that just means twelve bucks instead of four. Eight dollars for maybe a small benefit is worth it in my opinion.
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May 23, 2017 20:30
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Also be really careful about re-using any part that you have heated up. Anything that is heat-treated steel, you are effectively tempering/annealing and potentially air-quenching in an uncontrolled manner, which changes the material properties. I think you're OK for exhaust parts as shown in that video, but don't be heating up engine or structural components. e. I doubt the temper on the nuts and bolts for an alternator mount is important, so long as you're not heating up anything else inadvertently. This is more for general use. I've seen shadetree mechanics heating suspension components to red hot and then re-using them which is a potentially fatal error. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 22:57 on May 24, 2017 |
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May 24, 2017 22:54
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 14:33 |
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shovelbum posted:Yeah that's what I like about the wax, you don't have to go so insane with the heat, you can get it down in there without going bananas with a torch Ordinary carbon steel that has been quenched to glass hard will start to temper to a softer/tougher state at just ~400 degrees F. Most tempered steel has already been tempered higher than that, but once you're up above 500 degrees you're taking a significant risk that you're softening something that is supposed to be harder. So yeah, if you're gonna heat something to apply beeswax or whatever, don't get it so hot that it's too hot to touch. e. Jet fuel can't melt steel beams.jpg:  Bear in mind this chart is a simplification and that different alloys react at different temperatures. But: if you have a polished surface you can use the colors the steel turns on its surface to gauge how hot you've gotten it. And per this chart, if you see any color, you have already started to potentially alter the metal's properties. For heat treating, having reached the temper you want, you ordinarily would immmediately quench; if you're using a torch on a car part you are probably letting it air cool, which means you may be normalizing as well (resetting any stresses in the metal) which in turn could cause warping of some kinds of formed parts to boot. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 23:09 on May 24, 2017 |
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May 24, 2017 23:03
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