AI Stupid Question Thread - The automotive forum is calling about your car

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > AI Stupid Question Thread - The automotive forum is calling about your car

CAT INTERCEPTOR: Nov 9, 2004; Basically a male Margaret Thatcher

Wrar posted:

Any tips on getting dowel pins into a flywheel, or is it just an arduous pain?

Flywheel and pins in the freezer

# ¿ Jul 21, 2017 03:26

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 20:15

CAT INTERCEPTOR: Nov 9, 2004; Basically a male Margaret Thatcher

I feel the 1000hp rwd question would be best off if the OP made a new thread so we can answer his questions in a detailed and well laid out manner.

# ¿ Mar 5, 2021 23:47

CAT INTERCEPTOR: Nov 9, 2004; Basically a male Margaret Thatcher

totalnewbie posted:

Brevity is the soul of wit, which tells you all you need to know about me.

Rather see one of your posts than 100 lovely replies.

Annnyway....

So you mentioned there are three types of O2 sensors. You also mentioned switched as one type - is that what is otherwise called a narrowband O2?

# ¿ Jan 10, 2022 06:19

CAT INTERCEPTOR: Nov 9, 2004; Basically a male Margaret Thatcher

Hadlock posted:

Need to install aftermarket seat belts in the rear of my classic car so I can secure my kids car seat taking her to and from daycare

Originally I was just going to buy whatever cheap non retractable belts I found, but I guess retractable seat belts don't cost that much more. Then I came across this:

Looks like... A 1995 Honda seat belt...stalk? And then you could just have two retractable lap belts attach to that center stalk?

The world of aftermarket seat belts is small and their websites are horrific, I can't find anything like what's pictured here, anyone have experience with something similar?

My question here is if that's the standard seat belt mount or did you drill a hole yourself for the bolt?

# ¿ Apr 4, 2022 23:11

CAT INTERCEPTOR: Nov 9, 2004; Basically a male Margaret Thatcher

Hadlock posted:

Unless it's a safety issue and you're not doing a ton of highway miles, I'd rather just do 2500 interstate highwaymiles on worn shocks, and then when I get home and start doing city miles go get the shocks replaced. IMO cars with lovely shocks are pretty comfortable on the highway, if slightly floaty. You're buying a product with like six years worth of life in them and then putting 6 months worth of wear on them in 2-3 weeks precisely when you don't notice the shocks the most

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

Stay the hell out of this thread until Jan 1, 2023. Dont even think about dealing this kind of lovely advice again.

CAT INTERCEPTOR fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Dec 6, 2022

# ¿ Dec 6, 2022 00:55

CAT INTERCEPTOR: Nov 9, 2004; Basically a male Margaret Thatcher

GC8 WRX pull clutch slave, having problems bleeding it. Any suggestions other than a vacuum bleed kit? I'm out of ideas to get this blasted thing working more than bottom third of the pedal stroke.

Edit : I'm having a brain fart trying to remember the best way to do this

# ¿ Jan 8, 2023 07:21

CAT INTERCEPTOR: Nov 9, 2004; Basically a male Margaret Thatcher

Diesels dont have chokes.....?

# ¿ Mar 27, 2023 01:06

CAT INTERCEPTOR: Nov 9, 2004; Basically a male Margaret Thatcher

Hadlock posted:

How do you turn off your diesel

Thats not a choke - A choke is for richening the fuel mix for a gasoline carby car for cold running. See above how a diesel gets cut off

# ¿ Mar 27, 2023 01:56

CAT INTERCEPTOR: Nov 9, 2004; Basically a male Margaret Thatcher

STR posted:

Brake pads are one thing where asbestos is still legal, you really don't want to sand them.

He is in Australia, the sale or import of *anything* with asbestos is straight out illegal with no exceptions. If he's in NZ at the moment, the same applies there with a few exceptions (none being being car parts)

It's still small particles that the lungs wont like so still not a great idea without good respirator.

slothrop posted:

Nope, literally drove 100 metres from the car wash to home. Makes me wonder if there is some fuckery with the electonic handbrake.

My guess is something in the liquids the brake pads were exposed to started a reaction that managed to "glue" the pads to the rotor (OR existing brake dust was washed into the space between the pad and rotor and hardened). I've heard of similar things happening - but that was with say non-metallic pads from many years ago which is why I'm in the habit of dragging the brakes for a bit after a car wash to clean off the surface of the rotor's pads / evap any fluids.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2023 23:56

CAT INTERCEPTOR: Nov 9, 2004; Basically a male Margaret Thatcher

SuperFastMatt knows what he is talking about. Dynamat is what you want

quote:

who claims to be an automotive engineer

One who has worked at actual car makers as well as Tesla. Unlike most yooootooobers he actually knows his poo poo.

# ¿ May 10, 2023 00:21

CAT INTERCEPTOR: Nov 9, 2004; Basically a male Margaret Thatcher

Basically -

quote:

Saul_Tingly posted:

The stabilitrak and check engine light came on for a minute or so on the highway so I took it in to check the code. After a little googling I was expecting to need a new sensor or something since there are no other symptoms and it barely has over 30k miles on it. Admittedly I have no idea what I'm talking about.

No but I can confirm that I look like a classic mark so I am always a little suspicious of this kind of stuff. Definitely wouldn't be the first time someone just threw a bunch of poo poo on an invoice to see what sticks.

History of the ECU should show the issue with a scanner. 10 minutes tops for a decent mechanic.

honda whisperer posted:

A cracked piston would have very bad, noticeable and repeatable symptoms.

Also tests 1 and 2 would be compression and leak down. These are cheap and easy tests on most cars.

Never go back there for anything.

100%, there is no goddamn way you need to tear down a motor to diag a cracked anything. And bore scopes exist. Good lord, that mechanic is an rear end in a top hat

# ¿ Jun 9, 2023 10:49

CAT INTERCEPTOR: Nov 9, 2004; Basically a male Margaret Thatcher

His Divine Shadow posted:

I'm having problems with painting cars. As in I can't seem to get that final smooth result, there's always an imperfection left and it's kinda driving me crazy. Can I start blaming the equipment yet or is there something I am doing wrong? How many times do you have to use filler and sand down? I've also used high build primer, I've tried both dry and wet sanding to a smooth nice looking 1000 grit finish and then when it's time for the base coat I see there's an imperfection I missed in an area I could've sworn looked good. It's sorta driving me crazy and I wonder if I am using some bad products, or bad methods. I kinda prefer to wet sand by hand, have more control I think, but the end result was the same.

At least it's mostly the sills and lower down on the car, but I have future plans where I want to do bigger surfaces, whole panels, maybe a whole car. I want to get perfect damned results then. I am using mostly 2k products from start to finish.

Steps I took this latest repair
-grind away rust and bad paint to bare metal
-sand blast / citric acid / rinse and repeat
-2k epoxy sealer
-2k filler
-Sanding 2k filler
-2k high build primer, multiple coats
-wet sanding the primer and blending in the area using 1000 grit sand paper
-base coat
-clear coat

When I put down the base coat I saw imperfections I didn't see earlier. Since it was so low down on a cheap old car I didn't try and fix it but went on to clear coat. It still rankles though, I mean I want to be able to get a better finish. I dunno it doesn't feel like I've cheaped out on the products, maybe thge polyester filler I used this time was a no brand name cheapo can, but all the others where stuff from a car painting store and pro grade. Sand paper might also have been on the cheap ebay side of things.

Paging Darchanel(?) to thread, I think they would be best to answer

# ¿ Jun 27, 2023 01:36

CAT INTERCEPTOR: Nov 9, 2004; Basically a male Margaret Thatcher

Bilirubin posted:

Nitrogen tire fills, a scam since air is already mostly nitrogen or is it something I never realized I needed like synthetic oil?

It's a scam. For a road car there is simply no need.

Racing it's somewhat different but on the road nooooope

# ¿ Jul 2, 2023 22:46

CAT INTERCEPTOR: Nov 9, 2004; Basically a male Margaret Thatcher

Elder Postsman posted:

Ok, so I found a Mazda 5 about a month ago - a 2010 with 95k miles and I've put about 500 miles on it. Just got new tires put on. It's couple issues that are kind of baffling me:

1. At about 65 mph I get a slight shaking in the steering wheel, but not all the time. It sometimes shows up below 65, but only very rarely. I'm not totally discounting that the tire shop did a poo poo balancing job, but I'd expect it to show up all the time if that was it.
2. When going over bumps, I get a metallic kind of jangling keys rattle out of the front passenger side.

Had it in at a shop to see what they thought, and they said said it needs brakes, which I'm fairly certain is not the case - braking is solid and smooth with no pulsing or anything in the pedal and the pads still have plenty of material on them. I've got it in my garage up on stands now, and everything seems good. There's no play in the ball joints or tie rods, no loose heat shields, no torn boots or leaking fluids or anything. Only thing I can think of is maybe MAYBE the swaybar links, as I've read you can't really test those while they're on the car. But the ones on there have no socket for an allen key in the end of the bolt so I think I'm gonna have to cut them off if I go that route.

So, uh, I guess, any thoughts or ideas?

1) Yeah that one is most likely not a great balance and a harmonic at that speed as a result.

2) Thats an interesting one - Maybe see if a passenger can help get the source as close as possible?

# ¿ Jul 23, 2023 02:12

CAT INTERCEPTOR: Nov 9, 2004; Basically a male Margaret Thatcher

DildenAnders posted:

What's the best way to fix a clear coat scratch? Scraped a wooden pole and got a decently sized scrape but it "goes away" when I spray water on it.

Paint correction pen, although there are car detailing goons that may have better suggestions.

# ¿ Jul 23, 2023 03:51

CAT INTERCEPTOR: Nov 9, 2004; Basically a male Margaret Thatcher

sleepy gary posted:

Nooooooo.

Do you have AA or similar membership?

Otherwise, a stiff piece of wire like a coat hanger, a screwdriver and a towel. The towel is to stop scratches and protect paint a screwdriver levers the top of the doors so you can work the wire in and then you aim at the locking lever/switch on the inside.

I'd prefer not to say much more because thats kinda car theft 101 and also can be damaging if not done correctly but that's the gist.

I havent tried this one but a car battery with negative grounded to the car and the positive on something like the main starter cable. That may energise the car's electricals enough to open it - I have heard it working but I don't know if it will work on your car and it may be a really dumb idea that I wouldnt do unless someone else says yea or nay.

# ¿ Jul 23, 2023 09:21

CAT INTERCEPTOR: Nov 9, 2004; Basically a male Margaret Thatcher

If you cant get new via Repco (usually the best automotoive store for OEM parts, Supercheap does not carry items like that) or a ex-Holden dealer (some are now MG Motors, a couple remained GM but in general my guess is that a bunch of dealerships got rid of their spares when Holden disappeared) then eBay reconditioned is the only real choice. Rare Spares may be worth a shot too

I've put the question out to a few mates who do spare parts to see if they can help

# ¿ Oct 9, 2023 08:16

CAT INTERCEPTOR: Nov 9, 2004; Basically a male Margaret Thatcher

M_Gargantua posted:

Stupid question for the stupid question thread - or maybe for the chat thread since its not a real car question.

In Fury Road Furiosa calls the War Rig "2000HP of nitro boosted war machine" and yes it has two engines yada yada movie prop...

But what would you actually choose as a base for a single engine that could run that sustained for minutes at a time? Some 9L big block? I am stuck with this invasive question while I'm at work.

Steve Morris billet SMX. Proven to hold 5,000hp it basically idles at 600hp as a NA.

Otherwise a big rear end truck diesel? The really powerful Aussie road trains were/are running anywhere between 700-1000hp and I see they can at the very least least do over 8000hours so turn to boost up to have one go to 2000hp for minutes at a time is fesible

Truck racing as far as I can find info on have 12 litre motors at "over" 1000hp and 6000NM and still are required to be fairly standard. Also Bandag Bullet is a twin motored truck that does over 3000hp for minutes while doing burnouts.

Okay talked myself into 12+ litre truck motor for your hypothetical.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2023 23:38

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 20:15

CAT INTERCEPTOR: Nov 9, 2004; Basically a male Margaret Thatcher

And in thy days of the service park did Ari Vatenen raised the impact driver up on high, saying, 'Begark, bless this thy impact driver , that with it thou mayst tighen all thine lug nuts, in thy mercy.' And the Lord did grin. And the people did feast upon the lambs, and sausages, and steak, and beer, and Coke, and breakfast cereals, and hot chips, and FIA scrutineers...

And the Lord spake, saying, ''First shalt thou shall set the torque. Then shalt thou count to three ugga duggas, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four ugga duggas shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five ugga duggasis right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then remove thou thy Holy impact driver of Finland from thy lug nut, who, being before being loose in My sight, shall not be

# ¿ Mar 26, 2024 10:16

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > AI Stupid Question Thread - The automotive forum is calling about your car