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Godholio posted:If you're not lucky, you end up with paint on your headlights, undercarriage, mufflers, tires, windows, interior, convertible top, jamming up the door latch mechanism, and wrecking your weatherstripping's ability to actually create a seal. Who paints a car without masking or removing those items? Every time I've had my father in law paint something for me I spent waaaay more time prepping and masking/removing poo poo than it actually took to shoot the paint. I thought the idea with Maaco and similar establishments was you do your own prep work and rely on them only for the actual act of painting.
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May 3, 2015 21:17
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Godholio posted:It was a previous owner. The only thing on my list that I didn't have was painted headlights, but I've seen that. I can understand a little bit of overspray on some trim or the tire, but there was loving paint on the inside edge of the windshield. That's unacceptable. Likewise, the body-colored weatherstripping I just don't have the time or money to replace. All of it. Doors, hood, everything. Prep work only gets you so far, then it's up to the body shop to actually give a gently caress, and THAT'S where MAACO and the like fall down. They're Jiffy Lube for paint. v0v I always just assume anything that isn't either covered or removed from the vehicle is going to get paint on it. I would never have anyone attempt to paint something with anything I didn't want paint on exposed regardless of their skill level.
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May 3, 2015 22:20
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EightBit posted:This might have something to do with it. Eh, 15,000 mile rotations on tires with an expected life of nearly 90,000 miles isn't that egregious. Not ideal but I'd guess something else is going on.
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May 7, 2015 20:16
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Treadwear looks pretty even from that picture. I'm going to second IOC's suggestion that a tire designed for cars and maybe small SUVs just isn't going to last as long as the manufacturer suggests on a full size truck.
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May 7, 2015 20:57
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open24hours posted:I have a dumb idea for a project. What kind of converter would I need to plug a car headlight into a 240v outlet? 240V AC to 12V DC like this? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aussie-240V-AC-to-12V-DC-Converter-Transformer-Adapter-Car-Appliance-240W-20A-/261381266971 20A/240W might be a bit excessive (most car headlights are fused at 10-15A and only draw 50-65W) but yes, that should work for your application.
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May 9, 2015 21:01
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baram. posted:slotted rotors tend to be frowned upon for non track cars right? can someone explain that again I always forget the reasoning. I could go on a multi-page explanation why slotted rotors are a bad idea for just about any application, but basically brakes operate by turning kinetic energy into thermal energy. The more mass the rotor has the more heat it is able to absorb, and slotting or cross-drilling them does absolutely nothing to assist in cooling - you're actually decreasing braking performance by removing metal from the rotor. Also brake pad compound has come a long way and "give waste gas from the pads somewhere to go" hasn't been a major concern since the early 60s. Buy the cheapest set of plain rotors you can find, spend the extra money on good pads. Geoj fucked around with this message at 04:14 on May 14, 2015 |
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May 13, 2015 20:23
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TKIY posted:Oh God this is such a stupid question but is there any real value to the paint, leather, rust, etc protection that dealers push? Have you considered any undercoating? 
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May 15, 2015 01:51
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Parts Kit posted:Ran across this "electric supercharger" on ebay: Pretty much any car system that purports to create way more energy than it consumes is suspect - you can't make a shitload of power from a relatively low-draw electric motor. That being said, I recall years ago seeing an M45 or M60 roots blower hooked up to an electric motor through a gearbox that was powered by a bank of deep-cycle batteries. It would work...until the charge in the batteries diminished. IIRC it was intended to be used like nitrous - boost at the push of a button vs always on like a traditional turbo or supercharger.
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May 17, 2015 06:50
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The Swinemaster posted:Question about a 2002 Ford Focus ZTS with the DOHC engine, 180,000 km. I bought this car last week, and on Saturday the cooling system blew, dropping 3 litres on the highway and needing a tow to a mechanic. So far, we're $750 in with a water pump and thermostat, with estimated 300 more for a temp sensor since now the fans won't come on. No known issue on the pump, probably just a bad remanufactured unit. For reference my '02 ZX3 is still on its factory pump at just shy of 140,000. Temp sensor probably won't fix the fans, if they have it running ask them to try to turn the A/C on and see what the fans do (should both turn on with the A/C.) I'd put my money on a blown resistor pack on the fan unit itself, bad harness or the fans themselves are shot.
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May 20, 2015 08:05
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Armchair Calvinist posted:My friend and I are starting a business and he's looking to front 5-6k for a company car. The business is B2B in-person sales for the Orange County/San Diego area so there will be a lot of travel. Have you considered a Miata?
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May 20, 2015 20:40
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^ That's why I generally steer people away from a used MkI Focus unless you can confirm it's been owned most/all of its life by someone above the age of 25. It was bad back when I got mine in 2004, I can't imagine what the used market is like now. Sigma X posted:You didn't address my issue about 200% markup mechanic parts prices. When a shop charges $150/hr for labor and the literally-exact-same part I order on Rockauto for $82 costs $414 at a mechanic (EDIT: This is not hyperbole, or hypothetical), my response is usually something like "go gently caress yourself, guy". Now THAT'S rude. When I take my car to the shop, it's to pay for expertise of the mechanic. And I don't know what you're talking about for a mechanic's "warranty", because I've never seen the Bobby McGee repair shop warranty amount to anything but a pile of cheap words. I'd find another shop that either doesn't have such a high markup or is OK with you supplying your own parts. Otherwise do it yourself if you only want to pay the price on rockauto, pretty much every shop is going to charge a markup on parts. Geoj fucked around with this message at 07:24 on May 21, 2015 |
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May 21, 2015 02:02
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Does Waze use GPS to determine speed? If so, if you're standing still does it read zero and/or do you ever have issues in navigation with your location bouncing around or the pip turning into a large circle (meaning the GPS receiver doesn't have a solid lock and is only estimating your location within X meters)? Assuming you don't have GPS problems I'd trust the app more than your car's speedometer. I'd check and see what size tires the car shipped from the factory with vs. what is equipped now, if the overall diameter of the wheel & tire is different it will cause the speedometer to be off.
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May 21, 2015 06:32
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jackpot posted:I've got a 2011 Hyundai Sonata, and the Bluetooth mic seems to not be working. It works for playing music or using maps, and when someone calls me I can hear them perfectly fine, but they can't hear me. I've tried re-adding my phone to the car, but the first thing it asks me to do is to provide a name...which it can't hear, so it cancels the process. If I'm right and it's the mic, what kind of approximate cost am I looking at to get it fixed? Do you have another phone you could test with?
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May 22, 2015 16:59
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Probably hooks up to the switch that triggers the reverse lights. Or if the system is massively computer controlled the relay that triggers the reverse lights or the wires leading to them.
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May 22, 2015 22:41
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some texas redneck posted:I just checked Rockauto, they differ physically (Rockauto carries the original Hitachi OEM coils for a reasonable price, btw). The ones on the rear are listed as right hand, while front are listed as left hand. Seems like the chain parts stores have thrown in the towel on trying to be competitive with online sellers like Rockauto and are now moving to a "gouge the guy who needs it today" business model. About two years ago I bought a coil pack for my wife's Mazda 6 (that I didn't end up needing & returned), it was $35 or so at Autozone. Fast forward to about a month ago when she legitimately needed a coil pack and the cheapest I could find was $70 at O'Reilly. SperginMcBadposter posted:Anyone know where the engine block coolant plug is on Ford's 2.0L zetec engines? The dedicated zx2 forums are garbage. Do you just need to drain the coolant or do you specifically need to drain the block? I've never heard of a specific "block coolant plug" on the Zetec, AFAIK one does not exist. The radiator has the only drain that I know of, on my Zetec powered Focus its on the bottom-left corner.
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May 26, 2015 06:26
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OneThousandMonkeys posted:I'm in Washington, so no dice. Have you received a fix it ticket or do you know the police are especially anal about writing tickets for front plates? I live in a two-plate state as well and haven't had a front plate installed since 2005, ND despite having been pulled over and ticketed a few times in 10 years never had a ticket for the plate or even had the cop give me trouble about it. A lot of law enforcement has a "not my job"/don't believe enforcing the front plate law is worth their time. Molybdenum posted:Low/high beams are separate bulbs. Did the original headlights have separate bulbs or were they compound single bulbs? You may need a different relay or jump the low and high beam pins at the light control stalk.
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May 31, 2015 22:44
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slidebite posted:Further compounding it is that it's a Subaru so if I replace it, I'm probably replacing 4.. which really sucks as they are probably 80%+. If Tire Rack sells the tire they offer a shaving service.
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Jun 1, 2015 01:12
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slidebite posted:Is the consensus that its in too bad of a spot for the plug? I don't know - I've never had a tire shop willing to plug a hole that close to the shoulder but OTOH they'd rather sell you a $100+ new tire vs. $15 for a plug.
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Jun 1, 2015 01:57
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Flash to pass works but when you try to lock them on nothing? I'm going to guess you have a bad relay.
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Jun 3, 2015 17:36
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Stupid electrical question - I put Euro bumpers on my MkI Focus, and one of the features added was backup lights in the bumper itself -  Not my car, just for illustrative purposes I want to put a set of the solid on/white - blink on-off/amber LEDs into the backup lights so they can function as both reverse lamps & turn signals.  I would need to wire up the turn signal to 87, reverse signal to 87a and then 30 would go out to the reverse light. Do I need to supply it with a separate uninterrupted source into 85 & 86 or should it just send whatever voltage it receives at 87 & 87a through 30? In that case what are 85 & 86 used for? e: or am I reading that completely wrong and 85 & 86 trigger the relay and voltage gets supplied at the 87s? e2: OK googling this I think I figured it out. The relay's default position is 30 is linked to 87. Supply power across 85 & 86 and then 30 links to 87a. So I should be able to connect the turn signal to 87, reverse to 87a and 85, 86 to ground (or the other way around if it matters) and 30 to the lamp. Does this sound correct? e3: turns out I need 1157 dual-circuit bulbs to make this happen and the housings I have are set up for 1156. However it seems I should be able to switch the bulb sockets to 1157, which eliminates the need for a relay further upstream since the turn signal/reverse will have separate wires all the way to the bulb socket. Geoj fucked around with this message at 06:07 on Jun 4, 2015 |
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Jun 4, 2015 04:05
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kid sinister posted:You got the idea. If you got 2 color bulbs, then you need sockets with 2 connectors. Well, 3 connectors since they share a ground. Yeah, for some reason I had it in my head that the LED module could switch between white/solid and amber/blink just based on if the incoming power is solid or on/off. And there are some units that can change color if you swap polarity - but it appears that the only modules available for my application are 1157 dual circuit. Which is fine - I can obtain new sockets with attached pigtails for less than the cost of two relays plus harnesses, although I'm probably going to have to drop my rear bumper again to run an additional pair of wires.
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Jun 4, 2015 20:35
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Hikaki posted:I don't know poo poo about tire sizing For future reference, the formula is [treadwidth in mm]/[sidewall height as percentage of treadwidth] [wheel size in inches]. So the only difference between the two is 5% shorter sidewall, or about 10mm.
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Jun 4, 2015 21:46
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Detective Thompson posted:What's the issue with the CVT? Glacial acceleration, to the point that it's noticeable even if you don't usually drive fast. 0-60 times in the double-digits. Also cost a fortune to repair/replace when they inevitably fail (you're moving your car with belts and pullies.)
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Jun 7, 2015 22:18
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22 Eargesplitten posted:
Do you only hear the click when starting from a complete stop? You could have a damaged CV joint that's clicking when torque gets applied. Geoj fucked around with this message at 00:55 on Jun 9, 2015 |
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Jun 8, 2015 22:15
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Anyone have an opinion on KYB AGX adjustable dampers? My Focus is going to need a suspension refresh soon and my choices for adjustables are either AGX or Koni Yellows, and while I'm sure the Konis are great I don't want to spend nearly $700 on dampers. I seem to recall having read somewhere years ago that the AGX shocks are overrated, but that was on a terrible model-specific forum full of kids with rich parents funding their modding budget who mostly had the opinion that if you weren't putting in $1200+ coilovers you shouldn't bother with anything but OEM replacements.
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Jun 10, 2015 07:20
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Neptr posted:Tldr get OEM replacement or the Konis OE replacements are out, they're butter soft and I have a set of lowering Springs going in that that will kill them. If the KYB adjustables are terrible I'll just get a set of fixed rate performance dampers. PS I'm not a professional or even amateur race team so $8k coil overs are definitely out of the question. I'm just looking for something performance oriented for the street and maybe an occasional HPDE. Geoj fucked around with this message at 05:03 on Jun 12, 2015 |
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Jun 11, 2015 22:49
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spog posted:Any recommendations on what type of paint to use on the hubs? Do you mean calipers/drums? You really shouldn't paint the hubs... Lately I've taken to using spray-on bedliner out of a rattle can. Flat black and much more resilient than most paint.
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Jun 16, 2015 18:36
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You're going to have to clean that up before you can paint them. If you cover up the rust it will just continue to spread. Realistically I'd suggest completely removing the calipers and brackets so you can wire wheel them down to shiny bare metal before priming and painting.
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Jun 18, 2015 00:40
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Does anyone know where I could obtain a M12 x 1 bolt? I bought a clearance brake master cylinder for my Focus and it didn't include a bench bleeding kit and the one I bought from O'Reilly only had one each of the metric bleeder nipples, so I have to block off the remaining ports while I bleed one of them (non-ABS master cylinder, 4 output ports.) Couldn't find it locally and McMaster-Carr only has M12 fasteners in 1.25, 1.5 & 1.75. Seems to be impossible to find. Barring that, any suggestions on how to block off a master cylinder port that doesn't require me buying another $10 bench bleed kit?
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Jun 19, 2015 03:50
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I'm going to guess they either had to open the differential housing to drain it, or else replaced the gasket in an abundance of caution. I'm assuming this was done under warranty if the car is less than two weeks old?
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Jun 19, 2015 17:08
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C-Euro posted:In my continuing quest of me being dumb about cars, how bad is the penalty for driving around with expired tags on your license plate? I moved to a new state a few weeks ago and after a lot of headaches in getting settled, I'm finally getting around to reg-ing my car in my new state, as the tags on my old plate are dated 06-15 and expire at the end of this month. However, I took out a loan to get this car and the lender is the lienholder on the title, so the original is with them, and I need the original title to register my car here (moved from IL to PA). You're going to get a lot of anecdotal evidence for this. Personally, when I was a teenager I once drove my mid-90s Ranger for over a year on expired tags without realizing they were expired and was never pulled over. Usually it will depend on the officer who spots you, and how long it has been since they expired. Since you're currently on out of state plates as long as it doesn't take several months to get this resolved I'd guess you'll be OK, because a lot of cops are going to take a "not my job to enforce some other state's expired plate" stance, at least as long as you don't get pulled over for something else. Elmnt80 posted:What is the best way to tell if an idler pulley is bad and causing a squeaking/squealing noise? Remove the belt and turn the idler by hand. If its really bad you should be able to hear it, but I'd feel for resistance as you spin it by hand. While you're at it if you're that far along you might as well just replace it, idlers are cheap and you've already done 90% of the work in removing the belt. Geoj fucked around with this message at 02:31 on Jun 23, 2015 |
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Jun 23, 2015 02:29
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I have all the info I need to get tags for my old state so I'm not driving around with expired ones (and it shouldn't take them more than a week to reach me), but I'd like to not have to pay for two $100 registrations within a couple months of each other if it can be helped. Should I just suck it up and re-register in my old state right away, or can I get away with waiting for the title to go through?
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Slavvy posted:Get a really long screwdriver and put it up against the non-moving center bit of the pulley and put your ear to the other end. I feel like this is something I saw in one of those "scared straight" industrial accident movies they show you on the first day of shop class...
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Jun 23, 2015 04:47
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Caveat to the above: at higher elevations the lower oxygen content makes gasoline harder to burn, and 87 starts to act like mid-grade (89/91.) If you drive into a higher elevation with a tank of 87 you likely will see a decrease in fuel economy.
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Jun 24, 2015 17:20
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Parts Kit posted:where the hell do you buy dry ice? Google "[your city name/name of nearest major city] dry ice." Common places to find it include welding/gas suppliers and ice companies.
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Jun 27, 2015 03:51
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Water intrusion into the cabin? If not all of the electrical connections outside the cabin (should) be waterproof and you're probably OK, if yes then you're probably hosed.
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Jun 29, 2015 05:23
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Not sure if it applies to the sub-1.8 liter engined models but the MkI Focus had a plastic clutch master cylinder that is a ticking time bomb from the day it is installed (brake fluid is semi corrosive to plastics.) The sign that it needs to be replaced is fluid leaking onto the clutch pedal, but I doubt you would have failed to notice a puddle of brake fluid collecting on the floormat. The likelier scenario is the slave cylinder inside the transmission started leaking and has been dumping brake fluid into the bellhousing for some time. This would both explain the inability to shift and needing to have the clutch replaced - once the friction material on the clutch disc gets saturated with brake fluid it will never grip right again, and it would be silly to go through the trouble of removing the transmission to get at the slave cylinder and not replace the clutch at the same time. The cost of the part will be a drop in the bucket compared with the labor to remove and reinstall the transmission. e: disregard what I said about the Focus, I saw "Zetec" and immediately assumed it was the engine and not the trim level Ford uses in Europe... Geoj fucked around with this message at 23:28 on Jun 29, 2015 |
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Jun 29, 2015 22:44
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Sell or scrap? 2003 Mazda 6i with 145,000 miles. Body is in fair condition - lots of dings/scratches, some rusty spots that could be fixed, some stereotypical Mazda wheel well rust on the back/passenger side that would likely be more trouble than it would be worth to fix. Mechanically it is in good shape, I just dropped a junkyard engine with 90,000 miles into it early in 2014 at ~135,000 miles, automatic transmission shifts well and fluid is in good shape, no check engine light and recently passed emissions (which in Ohio means they can scan OBD-II and find the computer in a monitor-ready state with no pending or logged codes). And it has a salvage title - was supposed to have been in a flood but we weren't ever able to find evidence of water intrusion into the cabin and hasn't had any major electrical problems beyond what you'd expect from a 12 year old car - replaced the alternator last fall and had some issues with corrosion at the battery terminals. I've never scrapped a car before - any idea what I'd be likely to get from a recycler with it in good running condition? I'd wait for one of those "pull/drag/tow it in and we'll give you $3,000 on trade" deals but I don't ever plan on buying a brand new car. If I'm just going to get about the same for it selling it on CL as scrapping it I'll just save myself the trouble of dealing with craigslist flakes and take the easy money now.
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Jun 30, 2015 01:58
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zundfolge posted:Sell it. You won't even get a grand for it from a recycler, so you might as well toss it up on CL for $2500 or something and see whether you get any bites. Last time I was in a similar situation, Pick-N-Pull offered me $280 for a running, driving car, and that was before the current slump in scrap prices. OK - I was expecting to take a bath on it but not 90% off resale value. If I could even get close to a thousand out of it I'd be happy but yeah, gently caress getting taken to the cleaners like that.
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Jun 30, 2015 03:47
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Were you told the suspension had been recently replaced prior to purchase? Swaybar endlinks needing to be replaced should have also been a sign the suspension needed replacing as well since they're typically done at the same time. I would do the whole suspension and not just replace a single shock/strut. Ford racing still sells the SVT suspension kit for the MkI Focus - for around $250 you get performance valved shocks/struts, mild lowering springs (.5 inch drop) and a 2mm thicker RSB. It is by far the best bang for your buck as far as suspension for the Focus is concerned.
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Jul 4, 2015 23:25
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Ozmiander posted:what Here, let me spoon feed you the post I was replying to: The Swinemaster posted:The prepurchase inspection was fine, showing only a worn motor mount and sway bar links. TL;DR he bought a used 10+ year old car, was told the swaybar endlinks needed to be replaced and is now surprised there is more suspension work required. Geoj fucked around with this message at 23:37 on Jul 4, 2015 |
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Jul 4, 2015 23:33
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