I'm meatpimp, and I buy haunted cars.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > I'm meatpimp, and I buy haunted cars.

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

2300NEX has been discontinued - they should have sent you an AVH-2500NEX.
Weirdly, Sonic Electronix lists both the 2300NEX and 2400NEX on their site, but with a free upgrade to the 2500. Why list the old one as in stock if you're just going to send a newer one?

FWIW, I bought this for our Outback:
https://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_169259_Alpine-ILX-W650.html

Been pretty happy with it, other than the factory McIntosh amp in the Subaru not wanting to play nicely (alternator whine despite proper grounding and ground-loop isolators.Maddening piece of poo poo special snowflake amp. It's about to come out.)

edit: D'OH, should have refreshed. Apparently a little behind. I've only dealt with the Maestro once, in a buddie's Rogue, and it actually worked as intended after setup, so unfortunately can't offer any advice there.

Darchangel fucked around with this message at 22:18 on Sep 16, 2019

# ¿ Sep 16, 2019 22:14

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 21:21

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Computers and technology can be our friends, and it infuriates me when manufacturers use it as a weapon to secure a revenue stream.

# ¿ Oct 30, 2019 17:47

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

STR posted:

But does it have heated rear end and lower back warmers? Does it have the soup of badgeofownership.com badges on it?

Do you wear flannel while driving it?

That's what I thought.

So $2000 Subaru is currently sitting at $2150 after a wideband Denso A/F sensor. It'll be $2230 after the new half shaft (before Advance Auto's online 20% coupon anyway), probably $2300 after rotors. Throw in another $60 for a thermostat, thermostat housing (it's plastic, so it'll shatter if I don't have a new one on hand, and be reusable if I do have a new one), and coolant, and it'll be ready for road trips all over North America. It's already been all over the US, western Canada, and northern Mexico...

Meanwhile my $600 Outback is up to around $2K, with $600 of struts and springs + 1 control arm bushing, and $700 in tires. Still a pretty good deal. Oh, and $300 in stereo (so far.)

# ¿ Nov 5, 2019 00:51

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

meatpimp posted:

My $800 Avalon is right at $2k. All cheap cars end up being $2k.

Truth, and I�m OK with that. To be fair, mine honestly should have been about $2k to begin with. I got a hell of a deal from a fellow goon.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2019 05:01

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Right, never buying a VW.
Or a BMW, I guess.

# ¿ Nov 26, 2019 20:59

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

You have just confirmed for me that I will never buy a loving used Volkswagen.
Jesus Christ, who keeps coming up with these complicated new solutions to solved problems?

# ¿ Dec 17, 2019 00:30

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

meatpimp posted:

I also forgot that during the beginning of the saga, I found that a new Husky swivel was made of pure Chineseium.

Lifetime warranty. Take that fucker back.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2019 00:31

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

taqueso posted:

My Jetta had electric locks, you press the button and that electric signal starts a pneumatic pressure/vacuum pump, which pressurizes or applies vacuum to a tube that tees a few times and goes to all the doors. A pressure/vacuum switch in the door would then detect that and run an electric solenoid to unlock the door. Had to dig around under the carpet and find the disconnected tees a few times.

What in the actual gently caress. Leftover from when they were actually vacuum-operated?
Side note: the 1936 Lincoln Zephyr that we had briefly (non running, but in fair shape, considering. Also: flathead V12!) had hydraulic power windows. Possibly locks, too. I don't recall.

quote:

It also had a special tool required rear brake setup. You have to rotate the piston while compressing it.

That's normal for rear discs. But those locks...

quote:

It was a fun car but everything about working on it was dumb. I replaced window regulators 4 times and it was retired with the drivers window taped up.

Lots of manufacturers seem to fail at window regulators for some reason. At least on Fords, it's a fairly easy fix. The motors don't fail, but the nylon pegs that they use as a safety clutch disintegrate. Easy to replace.

STR posted:

Lots of cars did back then. I know my 80 F-150 did that.

fake edit: the switch had an internal self-resetting circuit breaker too

real edit: vvvv I think the Ford's was also unfused, hence the built-in circuit breaker.

GM did, too. They also loved to run full starter current through the ignition switch, which was at least a fairly beefy unit remotely operated by the key, AND run full current through the power window switches, eventually either burning them up, or at least making them flaky with carbon from arcing. Mazda did that, too, probably along with everyone else. I have no idea why the concept of using relays in an easier to replace location eluded them. A lot of manufacturers started using relays for the door locks, at least. My '95 Cherokee had relays for both locks, and I added them in unused locations in the relay block when I installed power window regulators.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2019 20:40

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

So, basically, they were either too cheap to build in 4 separate relays, or two cheap/incompetent to design a body controller that could handle more than one task at once.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2019 20:50

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

meatpimp posted:

This was after the transmission fluid machinations.

So today I set out to change the transmission fluid in my wife's '15 Acura RDX. It's got 32k miles and saw nothing other than oil changes before we got it in the Summer. Factory recommends changing fluid between 30k and 40k, so it's due by time and by miles.

What's the "procedure" for the transmission fluid in a modern Acura? Drain the transmission first. What size bolt? You don't even need a socket. It's an inset square that you just stick your 3/8" socket wrench into. Loosen and bang, it's draining. Then, to fill it up, you put a long funnel into the transmission dipstick tube and put 4 quarts back in. Done.

It's so exceedingly simple that it makes me a bit angry.

The total transmission fluid capacity is somewhere around 10-12 quarts, but only 4 quarts come out at a time. The factory specifies a fluid change as a drain-and-refill, but that only does a portion of the the total fluid. Conventional thought is to do a drain-and-refill 3 times in a row to get 90%+ of the fluid new. I did it twice and called it good. I'll incorporate a drain-and-fill into my oil change procedure and it should always be good with tranny fluid.

Why can't de Germans make maintenance easy.

My '70 Cutlass would be that simple IF GM had ever put a goddamned drain plug on any of their Turbo-Hydramatics. I need to either buy a pan with one, or weld in one myself.
Ditto for the Crown Vic, though it's 9 quarts, even without the torque converter! Good for longevity, but rough on the wallet at $6-10/quart. Thankfully, it rarely has to be done. In retrospect, I should have grabbed a sample of the fluid for Blackstone when I fixed the thing a while back.

Applebees Appetizer posted:

Every time I think I want a VW I'm reminded why I don't want a VW

QFT

Darchangel fucked around with this message at 21:49 on Dec 31, 2019

# ¿ Dec 31, 2019 21:46

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

How very German.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2020 15:34

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

bolind posted:

How about some neodiddlium magnets?

I just want you to know that I laughed at that. Thanks.

# ¿ Oct 3, 2020 00:58

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Not far from '80s Dodge, where the big firewall connector contacts would corrode a bit, get hot, and start melting the connector.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2020 00:53

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

meatpimp posted:

Sold it. Worked too hard for $500 profit, but it's an albatross removed from the garage.

Just bad timing -- it got cold here, so my wife's car was outside, I grossly miscalculated the number of vultures I'd run into selling a salvage car (I've sold dozens of clean title cars, I never realized the market is so different between the two...).

Learning experience. Time to get selling all of the auction stuff I bought last week and enjoying a full-on break from working.

I fear trying to sell my AE86 because of low-baller dingleberries, so now I'm stuck reupping the reg and inspection (and insurance) for another year...

Rhyno posted:

selling stuff is too much trouble these days. i just packed up a fuckload of toys and nerd poo poo and instead of going slow on Mercari i'm taking it all to a shop to dump in one go. i need to have as much free time as possible

I have a poo poo-ton of GI Joe (the '80s 6" stuff) that I should really get rid of, but *effort*.
I'll probably dump it on my cousin for his boss' comic shop to sell, if they'll take it. I loved the stuff as a kid, but I don't have anywhere to display it all, and I'm a manchild enough as-is, what with the Hot Wheels and Lego. And model cars. And other action figures, props... Oy.

# ¿ Dec 20, 2022 17:41

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Rhyno posted:

Remind me whereabouts in TX you are again? There's definitely places to avoid.

DFW. I'm specifically thinking Keith's Comics.

# ¿ Dec 20, 2022 22:39

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Rhyno posted:

I'd say Dallas Vintage Toys is the better option.

Well, yes, but my cousin isn't a manager there.

edit:

Adiabatic posted:

You made the right decision. Screw body work, and screw frame work. There's plenty of things I love about fixing cars but body work ain't one of em.

What's next?

Seconded.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2022 20:01

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# ¿ May 9, 2024 21:21

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

$60K. For a deck.
I don't care for this reality.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2023 18:58

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > I'm meatpimp, and I buy haunted cars.