Car Enthusiast Club [Now Motorcycle friendly!] - First thread to 150k! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Radium_Angel]

Questions for all you mechanics out there.

Of all the Dodge Chargers built over the decades, which model year would you consider to be the easiest (and most reliable..which could possibly be two different things)to work on/has the least crap that breaks?

[Bitter]

Wrong two different ways.

[vetali]

11 hours ago, Bitter said:

Not a siliconed cover, it's a gasket in a channel, silicone only goes down in a couple spots where the cover, head, and valve cover touch and maybe where the cover and head/block interface...I need to look at procedure again. Should be OK, just time consuming and nerve wracking because if I bone something up I know replacement stuff is not cheap or easy to get.

Not that I won't add some silicone where I think it'll help though like where my leaks have sprung 23 years later lol.

Oh. I realized I was talking about a 1AZ too... but they seem pretty similar. 'Member those new K24 DI motors I was talking about? Got an older K24 tore down and ready to time in 45 minutes today lol. Ez 9 hour job with valve adjustment.

4 hours ago, warmmilk said:

Went to the track yesterday… the elusive sub 2 still being elusive… really thought between the brakes, seat, and engine mounts I’d get there, but I guess I was wrong. I mean my driving can use some improving, but I don’t think there’s a sub 2 in these tires. A 2:01 for sure, maybe a 2:00…? Tires are the biggest limiting factor now. The session below was late in the day when temps fell like 15-20 degrees. During the day when it’s like 80ish degrees, tires start falling off after 1-2 laps. In the cooler weather they seam that seams to double

 

 

 

Dang, I thought you would've had it. What tires would you want to go with?

4 hours ago, Radium_Angel said:

Questions for all you mechanics out there.

Of all the Dodge Chargers built over the decades, which model year would you consider to be the easiest (and most reliable..which could possibly be two different things)to work on/has the least crap that breaks?

I don't have experience with the classics, but for the recent mercedes chassis... whatever you can get with a warranty lol. Seems like they all still have heater box issues. Suspension issues, v6s eat cams, v8s eat cams. Good transmissions (if auto, no experience with the manual aside from a SRT-8 challenger) and the diffs don't seem bad if stock?

2 hours ago, Bitter said:

Wrong two different ways.

I hate dealing with those clips, but come on man... lol.

[warmmilk]

6 hours ago, vetali said:

Dang, I thought you would've had it. What tires would you want to go with?

yeah, physics and reality is a cruel mistress... haha

 

I'm between Nankang AR-1, Kumho V730, and Goodyear Supercar 3R. 

 

AR-1 is at the top of the list, good mix of performance and longevity (track use) but definitely lacking in street-ability if its wet. 

 

I've been hearing a lot of good things about the V730, but it is a 200tw.  and 200tw tires are basically cheater tires these days.  they're either super fast but realistically more like 50tw or something, or they're a real 200tw but then they're not as fast.  the biggest draw to the 200tw class is wet weather street-ability but looking at the tread pattern on the V730 its gonna suck in the wet... so might as well get the AR-1, they're about the same price.

 

3R costs more than the other 2 but its just barely behind a Hoosier, super sticky, 5/32" tread depth thats basically just there to look pretty.  also gonna wear the fastest...  I'll prolly work my way up to this one.  Kinda thinking of this tire as a reward for myself when I can string together most of a session of error free laps.

 

Initial plan was to go with a reverse stagger, 245 or 255 front and 225 rear.  But I'm thinking I wanna stay with a square setup now.  I get good rotation on turn in, sometimes a bit too good.  I'm kinda thinking I may wanna stay closer in grip front to rear.  or maybe a small stagger like 255/245.  but the downside is it'll be harder to get hear into wider rear tires so it might be even more tail happy till its had a few laps to warm up...

 

Edit:

I also kinda wanna get directional wheels so I can swap them on left/right wheels and get more life out of them, but more and more tires are asymmetrical, having an "outside" and "inside" to a tire, so camber wear at a track like the Ridge kills them.  tin foil hat on, tire manufactures are doing this on purpose 

 

 

 

 

 

TLDR: I don't know, haha

[Bitter]

6 hours ago, warmmilk said:

TLDR: I don't know, haha

Probably not super helpful but I've LOVED my Dunlop Z2 and now Z3, but I'm not tracking the car just streeting it and did autocross once (didn't care for the people, too competition focused as it's a club, and course was poorly marked out with white chalk on cement with very few cones between sections). They're predictable, talk well, grip well, ride decently enough to drive daily, last better than expected for 200 TW, the Z3's warm up reasonably quick on the street. The only negative I might give them is I've read that they do get a little slower as they get really hot from repeated laps and some reviews say they've got a little less steering feedback than other tires in their class. I can certainly see the less feedback than some other tires but once you've spent a little time with them you quickly pick up on how they do communicate back through the car to you near the limit, at the limit, and past the limit. They've been easy to recover when I've made an oopsie here and there.  Wet traction is decent for what they are, deeper water will hydroplane them but if it's just a wet surface they're pretty confident still. Tire pressures really change their handling characteristics, too high drastically drops traction but lower doesn't make handling too mushy. I typically run about 30-32 front and 28-30 rear cold pressure and will adjust it throughout the day if I'm out having fun depending what I'm seeing for hot pressures, I try to keep the fronts under 36 hot and rears under 32 hot. My Celica probably isn't too dissimilar from your Honda with the exception of the amount of power and brakes. I've got poly all the bushings, big front sway, larger rear sway, and BC coils with 8K front and 12K rear springs, zero toe, about 4-5 deg caster, and -1.5 camber up front and about -2 in the rear. After all my suspension and the better tires the 2 biggest things that made the car faster were more experience learning the car and more camber. Initially I was conservative with it for fear of eating tires but once I added about -.5 front and rear it really got A LOT faster through the corners with only a tiny bit more brake lock in the rear.

 

13 hours ago, vetali said:

Oh. I realized I was talking about a 1AZ too... but they seem pretty similar. 'Member those new K24 DI motors I was talking about? Got an older K24 tore down and ready to time in 45 minutes today lol. Ez 9 hour job with valve adjustment.

Dang, I thought you would've had it. What tires would you want to go with?

I don't have experience with the classics, but for the recent mercedes chassis... whatever you can get with a warranty lol. Seems like they all still have heater box issues. Suspension issues, v6s eat cams, v8s eat cams. Good transmissions (if auto, no experience with the manual aside from a SRT-8 challenger) and the diffs don't seem bad if stock?

I hate dealing with those clips, but come on man... lol.

Literally about 20% of my job is figuring out what someone else fucked up, fixing that, and then fixing what was actually wrong.

All the Chargers suck in some way but the earlier revival ones seem to be the more reliable ones, I've seen some roll through north of 200K miles on the original drive train. Just need to do all the suspension arms up front with aftermarket with solid bushings or heim joint bushings. The NAG1 trans isn't that bad long term actually, just change the fluid and add some extra cooling. Yeah, I've only seen one grenaded rear diff so far.

1AZ is a bit different but sort of similar to the 2ZZ/1ZZ, might not be interference and doesn't have VVL just VVT. They're good motors too, fun torquey engines in smaller cars like the later Corolla/Matrix XRS just not fun-fun like a top end screamer. Once you get out of the torque band down low they're just not fun anymore. It is nice to get one of the 'old familiar' jobs in your bay. Banged through those brakes in like an hour even with time spent helping the boss with some engine mounts on an 11 Tahoe. He can do it by himself and has but it goes a lot faster with two people, we usually tag-team work like that to get it out faster and reduce frustrations. It's just the two of us so we often share work back and forth. Sometimes we'll both work together on something or we'll see the other one is stuck and offer a different angle or perspective. It works well for us but I know in most shops that's probably frowned upon, the one older dude who used to work with us did not like anyone helping him unprompted, would go on a tirade about how he's been a mechanic for 40 years, and would only ask for help after he hopelessly fucked something up beyond repair, he was an asshole though so....

[DANK_AS_gay]

I wish manufacturers still made Toyota Pickup sized trucks. Not everyone needs to tow constantly, but a small SUV can't fit a lawnmower in the back. Problem is, CAFE restrictions are insane the smaller the wheelbase. So instead of encouraging better gas mileage, it incentivizes larger less fuel efficient cars... Man do I love politicians.

[TVwazhere]

24 minutes ago, DANK_AS_gay said:

I wish manufacturers still made Toyota Pickup sized trucks. 

You mean like the Ford Maverick?

[DANK_AS_gay]

1 minute ago, TVwazhere said:

You mean like the Ford Maverick?

The ford maverick is significantly larger than the truck I mentioned, and has to be a hybrid as a base model in order to meet CAFE restrictions.

[warmmilk]

5 hours ago, Bitter said:

Probably not super helpful but I've LOVED my Dunlop Z2 and now Z3, but I'm not tracking the car just streeting it and did autocross once (didn't care for the people, too competition focused as it's a club, and course was poorly marked out with white chalk on cement with very few cones between sections). They're predictable, talk well, grip well, ride decently enough to drive daily, last better than expected for 200 TW, the Z3's warm up reasonably quick on the street. The only negative I might give them is I've read that they do get a little slower as they get really hot from repeated laps and some reviews say they've got a little less steering feedback than other tires in their class. I can certainly see the less feedback than some other tires but once you've spent a little time with them you quickly pick up on how they do communicate back through the car to you near the limit, at the limit, and past the limit. They've been easy to recover when I've made an oopsie here and there.  Wet traction is decent for what they are, deeper water will hydroplane them but if it's just a wet surface they're pretty confident still. Tire pressures really change their handling characteristics, too high drastically drops traction but lower doesn't make handling too mushy. I typically run about 30-32 front and 28-30 rear cold pressure and will adjust it throughout the day if I'm out having fun depending what I'm seeing for hot pressures, I try to keep the fronts under 36 hot and rears under 32 hot. My Celica probably isn't too dissimilar from your Honda with the exception of the amount of power and brakes. I've got poly all the bushings, big front sway, larger rear sway, and BC coils with 8K front and 12K rear springs, zero toe, about 4-5 deg caster, and -1.5 camber up front and about -2 in the rear. After all my suspension and the better tires the 2 biggest things that made the car faster were more experience learning the car and more camber. Initially I was conservative with it for fear of eating tires but once I added about -.5 front and rear it really got A LOT faster through the corners with only a tiny bit more brake lock in the rear.

Yeah the Z2 and Z3 were great tires, especially the Z2 for its time and I’ve had both. It was the first 200tw to give rcomps a run for their money.. and it was a real 200tw so it lasted pretty decent too. But they are pretty dated now, the 200tw club has been through 4-5 generations since the last Z3 update. The Z3 was a hair slower than the RE71R but fell off even quicker. 
 

if you look at the tirerack test, the only 200tw tire that’s slower is the tire I’m currently on (which I bought cause at the time they were on special for super cheap, under $100 a tire). Even the 240tw Michelin is faster. Sorry to rain on your parade, the Dunlop is a great tire, it’s just outdated now. I wish Dunlop would update it, it was my first sticky tire so I have a soft spot for them

 

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=302
(I wish they included the 220tw Goodyear Supercar 3 in this test since they included the 240tw Michelin)

 

but yeah, camber helps a lot in handling… on any tire

[Bitter]

44 minutes ago, warmmilk said:

Yeah the Z2 and Z3 were great tires, especially the Z2 for its time and I’ve had both. It was the first 200tw to give rcomps a run for their money.. and it was a real 200tw so it lasted pretty decent too. But they are pretty dated now, the 200tw club has been through 4-5 generations since the last Z3 update. The Z3 was a hair slower than the RE71R but fell off even quicker. 
 

if you look at the tirerack test, the only 200tw tire that’s slower is the tire I’m currently on (which I bought cause at the time they were on special for super cheap, under $100 a tire). Even the 240tw Michelin is faster. Sorry to rain on your parade, the Dunlop is a great tire, it’s just outdated now. I wish Dunlop would update it, it was my first sticky tire so I have a soft spot for them

 

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=302
(I wish they included the 220tw Goodyear Supercar 3 in this test since they included the 240tw Michelin)

 

but yeah, camber helps a lot in handling… on any tire

I didn't realize the Z3 was that out of date,it only came out in 2018 oh my that's 5 years ago I'm getting old.

 

That article is confusing me, graph says the Z3 is 2nd slowest but reading the blurbs it's the 3rd fastest? I mean I am having a migraine today so maybe it's just me .

[warmmilk]

11 minutes ago, Bitter said:

I didn't realize the Z3 was that out of date,it only came out in 2018 oh my that's 5 years ago I'm getting old.

 

That article is confusing me, graph says the Z3 is 2nd slowest but reading the blurbs it's the 3rd fastest? I mean I am having a migraine today so maybe it's just me .

naw, you’re not wrong… for most tires 5 years isn't a long time. The 200tw class has been pretty competitive since the Z2 competitors started coming out, that was the tire that really started it all. Well, technically it was the RT615, but things didn’t really start happening till the Z2. The last 5 years, basically since the RE71R, things have been going nuts. Some tires even getting multiple updates in a single year. 
 

I don’t see anything about the Z3 being third fastest…?

[vetali]

17 hours ago, warmmilk said:

TLDR: I don't know, haha

Stagger sounds like way too much money if you just doing it for fun especially if you are already torching the insides. I do think there is some #bigtire conspiracy to make everything asymmetrical. I blame stancers, once again.

 

10 hours ago, Bitter said:

Literally about 20% of my job is figuring out what someone else fucked up, fixing that, and then fixing what was actually wrong.

All the Chargers suck in some way but the earlier revival ones seem to be the more reliable ones, I've seen some roll through north of 200K miles on the original drive train. Just need to do all the suspension arms up front with aftermarket with solid bushings or heim joint bushings. The NAG1 trans isn't that bad long term actually, just change the fluid and add some extra cooling. Yeah, I've only seen one grenaded rear diff so far.

1AZ is a bit different but sort of similar to the 2ZZ/1ZZ, might not be interference and doesn't have VVL just VVT. They're good motors too, fun torquey engines in smaller cars like the later Corolla/Matrix XRS just not fun-fun like a top end screamer. Once you get out of the torque band down low they're just not fun anymore. It is nice to get one of the 'old familiar' jobs in your bay. Banged through those brakes in like an hour even with time spent helping the boss with some engine mounts on an 11 Tahoe. He can do it by himself and has but it goes a lot faster with two people, we usually tag-team work like that to get it out faster and reduce frustrations. It's just the two of us so we often share work back and forth. Sometimes we'll both work together on something or we'll see the other one is stuck and offer a different angle or perspective. It works well for us but I know in most shops that's probably frowned upon, the one older dude who used to work with us did not like anyone helping him unprompted, would go on a tirade about how he's been a mechanic for 40 years, and would only ask for help after he hopelessly fucked something up beyond repair, he was an asshole though so....

Had a newer Type R in today where the kid did is own brakes and ruined both parking brake actuators. Slap new actuators on (actually not that badly priced, about 250 per side)... and it won't go through and keeps setting a code. Do research on techline and apparently its a common issue.... aftermarket companies made a 1 size fits all pad for all 10th gen civics. The Type R actually uses a smaller brake thickness than a regular Civic. So it won't let you initialize the system because it wont activate the actuator long enough and throws a code.

 

Told the kid either cough up the dough for OEM pads, or I can hot lap it down hill and attempt it again. He actually said hot lap it lol. Afterwards it worked fine.

 

The AZ are the ones with oil consumption issues though right? That was another fun job that I believe I told here before. Did a full timing job on a TC.... finish it and its still throwing whatever code it had... and pissing oil. Reseal the cover again, still setting a code. Talk to my buddy at Toyota, he comes over and is like... yeah dude they swapped a RAV4 motor in there... its the wrong motor lol. Said he got caught with that before too on a TC as well.

[AlwaysFSX]

11 hours ago, DANK_AS_gay said:

I wish manufacturers still made Toyota Pickup sized trucks. Not everyone needs to tow constantly, but a small SUV can't fit a lawnmower in the back. Problem is, CAFE restrictions are insane the smaller the wheelbase. So instead of encouraging better gas mileage, it incentivizes larger less fuel efficient cars... Man do I love politicians.

[Bitter]

9 hours ago, warmmilk said:

naw, you’re not wrong… for most tires 5 years isn't a long time. The 200tw class has been pretty competitive since the Z2 competitors started coming out, that was the tire that really started it all. Well, technically it was the RT615, but things didn’t really start happening till the Z2. The last 5 years, basically since the RE71R, things have been going nuts. Some tires even getting multiple updates in a single year. 
 

I don’t see anything about the Z3 being third fastest…?

Seriously, it could just be brain fuzz from working all day with a migraine in 106 degree heat index but they listed them in order starting with lowest track time then the bar chart at the bottom has entirely different ordering??

Or is the article just really badly laid out and I'm having a huge bout of idiot today? It's probably that.

[Bitter]

5 hours ago, vetali said:

Stagger sounds like way too much money if you just doing it for fun especially if you are already torching the insides. I do think there is some #bigtire conspiracy to make everything asymmetrical. I blame stancers, once again.

 

Had a newer Type R in today where the kid did is own brakes and ruined both parking brake actuators. Slap new actuators on (actually not that badly priced, about 250 per side)... and it won't go through and keeps setting a code. Do research on techline and apparently its a common issue.... aftermarket companies made a 1 size fits all pad for all 10th gen civics. The Type R actually uses a smaller brake thickness than a regular Civic. So it won't let you initialize the system because it wont activate the actuator long enough and throws a code.

 

Told the kid either cough up the dough for OEM pads, or I can hot lap it down hill and attempt it again. He actually said hot lap it lol. Afterwards it worked fine.

 

The AZ are the ones with oil consumption issues though right? That was another fun job that I believe I told here before. Did a full timing job on a TC.... finish it and its still throwing whatever code it had... and pissing oil. Reseal the cover again, still setting a code. Talk to my buddy at Toyota, he comes over and is like... yeah dude they swapped a RAV4 motor in there... its the wrong motor lol. Said he got caught with that before too on a TC as well.

LOL that's one way to thin the pads a little. Must be nice to have techline, I get hand me down TSB's from Alldata and Google...and my occasional bouts of intelligence.

Hmm the Rav4 AZ, Camy, and TC should all be the same block maybe with the exception of a axle bearing mount but usually Toyota leaves the bosses just doesn't tap them. The difference between a Celica/MR2 1ZZ and a Corolla Matrix is exactly that, untapped bosses to mount the axle bearing bracket for the 2 part axle. Not sure why it would be pissing oil, but it seems like something putting a bolt in a hole would have fixed?

 

We had a Mazda 6 in once that someone swapped the engine on, a 3.7 V6 which was shared with some Ford vehicles except you need to swap the Mazda intake manifold and Mazda coolant housings. Well whomever swapped the engine did not do that. The intake manifold cleared but the coolant housing and thermostat were jammed into the battery making it sit at an angle against the engine and it was bumping the hood with only the plastic flap on the positive keeping it from burning down the car all the while the housing itself was chewing into the Polypropylene battery case rather quickly, each mash of the gas gnawing nearer to spilling a batteries worth of acid onto the trans, wiring harness, and likely between the cylinder heads.

[vetali]

3 minutes ago, Bitter said:

LOL that's one way to thin the pads a little. Must be nice to have techline, I get hand me down TSB's from Alldata and Google...and my occasional bouts of intelligence.

Hmm the Rav4 AZ, Camy, and TC should all be the same block maybe with the exception of a axle bearing mount but usually Toyota leaves the bosses just doesn't tap them. The difference between a Celica/MR2 1ZZ and a Corolla Matrix is exactly that, untapped bosses to mount the axle bearing bracket for the 2 part axle. Not sure why it would be pissing oil, but it seems like something putting a bolt in a hole would have fixed?

 

We had a Mazda 6 in once that someone swapped the engine on, a 3.7 V6 which was shared with some Ford vehicles except you need to swap the Mazda intake manifold and Mazda coolant housings. Well whomever swapped the engine did not do that. The intake manifold cleared but the coolant housing and thermostat were jammed into the battery making it sit at an angle against the engine and it was bumping the hood with only the plastic flap on the positive keeping it from burning down the car all the while the housing itself was chewing into the Polypropylene battery case rather quickly, each mash of the gas gnawing nearer to spilling a batteries worth of acid onto the trans, wiring harness, and likely between the cylinder heads.

Actually calling techline is pretty pointless. We have a super secret forum which has saved my ass so many times. Such a great resource without calling in and being told "have you tried turning it off and on again?". Called on a newer Accord hybrid that went into limp mode and had a transmission pressure code. I couldn't duplicate anything wrong, even mimicking the snapshot in a test drive. They were like, ya pressure sensor sounds good. Slap it and send it. They were from out of town so no idea if it actually fixed it.

 

These new cars are rolling out with so many oddball issues though that even the forums aren't saving me. Had a new CR-V in that wouldn't change AM radio stations. I was instantly thinking, well this guy is a boomer and doesn't know how to work a radio. Nope, thing is borked and can't do anything with AM. Try symptom troubleshooting and theres nothing on service info and most resort to "fActOrY rEsET" which I HATE doing because it only masks/delays the issue and pisses off the customer. Get creative and go into the diagnostic menu, into the tuner unit sub menu and now I can manually change the tuner to AM bands. I enter a known good station and it works. Going through the error menu on the infotainment is pretty useless... it gets flooded with pointless shit kinda like the event viewer in windows. But I do notice a constant tuner communication error code popping up. So I have a tuner unit coming soon(tm) to substitute before calling techline and requesting an audio unit.. which I need techline approval to order anyway.

 

Apparently its something to do with the crank reluctor / sensor location. ECM don't like it. I messed up running the bead of silicone on the cover.

[warmmilk]

7 hours ago, vetali said:

Stagger sounds like way too much money if you just doing it for fun especially if you are already torching the insides. I do think there is some #bigtire conspiracy to make everything asymmetrical. I blame stancers, once again.

 

stagger would actually save money. I could get narrower wheels and tires for the rear.  I wouldn't be able to rotate them, but I'd just replace the front tires more often than the rear.  the only real "problem" they'd cause is slowing down me trying different tires.  also makes it easier to stuff tires under the rear fenders... so thats a nice bonus

 

I got one that tops your Type R story... I had a kid with a Legacy change the oil on his car.  So he drained the transmission and filled the engine... so that killed the transmission... and he traded it in for a new Legacy.  Which he was planning to do already, just that now he got a lot less for the trade.

[warmmilk]

1 hour ago, Bitter said:

Seriously, it could just be brain fuzz from working all day with a migraine in 106 degree heat index but they listed them in order starting with lowest track time then the bar chart at the bottom has entirely different ordering??

Or is the article just really badly laid out and I'm having a huge bout of idiot today? It's probably that.

the left to right is just in alphabetical order... is that what you meant?  or the lap times? in the bar graph the minutes and seconds are just converted to second.  so like a 1:40 is 60 (seconds in a minute) + 40 = 100 seconds (sorry about the mansplaining)

 

sorry about your migraine... 

[JoaoPRSousa]

On 7/28/2023 at 4:06 PM, DANK_AS_gay said:

has to be a hybrid as a base model in order to meet CAFE restrictions.

 

And what's wrong with that?

 

And also, @warmmilk nice seeing you again!

[Bitter]

8 hours ago, warmmilk said:

the left to right is just in alphabetical order... is that what you meant?  or the lap times? in the bar graph the minutes and seconds are just converted to second.  so like a 1:40 is 60 (seconds in a minute) + 40 = 100 seconds (sorry about the mansplaining)

No no it's not mansplaining, I get how 1:40 is 100 seconds that's not what was messing me up. I think my confusion is in the written portion there's 3 avg lap times which are listed in an order of fast to less fast (1:46, 1:47.5, 1:47.8, 1:48.5) but then further down the times are not in any order, so in my confusion I thought they had listed the tires in the written section in order of fast to slow but instead I think it was just a coincidence that they came out in that order for the first three in the article. Whoever put the article together could have done a better job presenting the data to make things more clear such as doing the written portion fast to slow or slow to fast and then making the chart in the same order as the written article to avoid confusion as well

 

Quote

sorry about your migraine...

Went to  bed with it Thursday night hoping to sleep it off, woke up with it middle of the night Friday morning, went into work a little late cause of it, had it all day long to varying degree, faded out a little when I got home, came back over night, woke up with it this morning. I can't think straight, pain comes in waves, dizziness, light hurts, everything smells way too strong, feel weak, stomach churning like a toilet flushing, and working in 90 degree heat with 106 heat index clearly didn't help anything on Friday. Might have been mild heat stroke even as Thursday was also super hot like Friday with temps in the high 80's and heat index around 100, I don't know. I never bothered to take my temperature but I probably should have, could have sucked on the thermo-couple from the fluke meter lol. Working with a migraine is pretty fucking miserable but at least I'm working and getting things done, the alternative is to take the day off, drug myself to sleep for about 12 hours, and hope it's gone when I wake up.

[Bitter]

9 hours ago, vetali said:

Actually calling techline is pretty pointless. We have a super secret forum which has saved my ass so many times. Such a great resource without calling in and being told "have you tried turning it off and on again?". Called on a newer Accord hybrid that went into limp mode and had a transmission pressure code. I couldn't duplicate anything wrong, even mimicking the snapshot in a test drive. They were like, ya pressure sensor sounds good. Slap it and send it. They were from out of town so no idea if it actually fixed it.

 

These new cars are rolling out with so many oddball issues though that even the forums aren't saving me. Had a new CR-V in that wouldn't change AM radio stations. I was instantly thinking, well this guy is a boomer and doesn't know how to work a radio. Nope, thing is borked and can't do anything with AM. Try symptom troubleshooting and theres nothing on service info and most resort to "fActOrY rEsET" which I HATE doing because it only masks/delays the issue and pisses off the customer. Get creative and go into the diagnostic menu, into the tuner unit sub menu and now I can manually change the tuner to AM bands. I enter a known good station and it works. Going through the error menu on the infotainment is pretty useless... it gets flooded with pointless shit kinda like the event viewer in windows. But I do notice a constant tuner communication error code popping up. So I have a tuner unit coming soon(tm) to substitute before calling techline and requesting an audio unit.. which I need techline approval to order anyway.

 

Apparently its something to do with the crank reluctor / sensor location. ECM don't like it. I messed up running the bead of silicone on the cover.

Ah I see, I kind of assumed that was the case for some of the call in services snappy and alldata are pushing now. I'm really scared of the AI repair suggestion shit I know is coming suggesting just absolutely idiotic things which virgin techs won't know are just dangerously stupid.

 

I had a Police interceptor Ford Explorer throwing an unclearable ABS internal failure code, logic fault or something, one of the 600 codes. Clear code, comes back on key cycle, disconnect battery, comes back on key cycle, diag procedure is to check power/ground really good then slap in another ABS module and cross your fingers it's not a harness intermittent or something else, basically throw parts until fixed. I went off script and did a yaw rate relearn which "rebooted" the module and cleared the code when it re-learned the zero point for the accelerometers likely since that's written into a ROM and that ROM was corrupted, kind of like flashing a fresh BIOS into a graphics card with issues. It's been fixed for a few months now but we were up front about it and explained to her that it may actually not be fixed and if the problem comes back it likely will need an ABS module, she's just thankful it's working for now.

[warmmilk]

53 minutes ago, JoaoPRSousa said:

 

And what's wrong with that?

 

And also, @warmmilk nice seeing you again!

Thanks!!!

52 minutes ago, Bitter said:

No no it's not mansplaining, I get how 1:40 is 100 seconds that's not what was messing me up. I think my confusion is in the written portion there's 3 avg lap times which are listed in an order of fast to less fast (1:46, 1:47.5, 1:47.8, 1:48.5) but then further down the times are not in any order, so in my confusion I thought they had listed the tires in the written section in order of fast to slow but instead I think it was just a coincidence that they came out in that order for the first three in the article. Whoever put the article together could have done a better job presenting the data to make things more clear such as doing the written portion fast to slow or slow to fast and then making the chart in the same order as the written article to avoid confusion as well

 

Went to  bed with it Thursday night hoping to sleep it off, woke up with it middle of the night Friday morning, went into work a little late cause of it, had it all day long to varying degree, faded out a little when I got home, came back over night, woke up with it this morning. I can't think straight, pain comes in waves, dizziness, light hurts, everything smells way too strong, feel weak, stomach churning like a toilet flushing, and working in 90 degree heat with 106 heat index clearly didn't help anything on Friday. Might have been mild heat stroke even as Thursday was also super hot like Friday with temps in the high 80's and heat index around 100, I don't know. I never bothered to take my temperature but I probably should have, could have sucked on the thermo-couple from the fluke meter lol. Working with a migraine is pretty fucking miserable but at least I'm working and getting things done, the alternative is to take the day off, drug myself to sleep for about 12 hours, and hope it's gone when I wake up.

Oh I see… yeah the little blurbs are also in alphabetical order, haha

 

idk if I had a headache like that I’d prolly be in the drug myself and sleep for a day or 2 camp, haha

[vetali]

9 hours ago, warmmilk said:

stagger would actually save money. I could get narrower wheels and tires for the rear.  I wouldn't be able to rotate them, but I'd just replace the front tires more often than the rear.  the only real "problem" they'd cause is slowing down me trying different tires.  also makes it easier to stuff tires under the rear fenders... so thats a nice bonus

 

I got one that tops your Type R story... I had a kid with a Legacy change the oil on his car.  So he drained the transmission and filled the engine... so that killed the transmission... and he traded it in for a new Legacy.  Which he was planning to do already, just that now he got a lot less for the trade.

Interesting, never woulda guessed. That Type R also had 1 rear tire worn to the cords on the inner edge, and a front tire with a huge bulge. So I didn't even want to drive the thing to begin with. He might actually do tires through us... which I haven't done Type R tires before.... freakin 30 series tires. I think I can do them, and you have to be full monkee mode to scratch a wheel on our tire machine.

 

Had a guy do a similar thing on a new at the time CR-V, which is harder to do than on a Subaru especially if it was older. Luckily he noticed. Unluckily he bought a case of HCF-2 and filled it until it came out the fill plug because theres no dipstick on CVTs. Fluid was pretty aerated when it came in so I just let it sit for a few hours draining. Did a proper fill on the transmission. Haven't seen him since, lol.

 

38 minutes ago, Bitter said:

Ah I see, I kind of assumed that was the case for some of the call in services snappy and alldata are pushing now. I'm really scared of the AI repair suggestion shit I know is coming suggesting just absolutely idiotic things which virgin techs won't know are just dangerously stupid.

 

I had a Police interceptor Ford Explorer throwing an unclearable ABS internal failure code, logic fault or something, one of the 600 codes. Clear code, comes back on key cycle, disconnect battery, comes back on key cycle, diag procedure is to check power/ground really good then slap in another ABS module and cross your fingers it's not a harness intermittent or something else, basically throw parts until fixed. I went off script and did a yaw rate relearn which "rebooted" the module and cleared the code when it re-learned the zero point for the accelerometers likely since that's written into a ROM and that ROM was corrupted, kind of like flashing a fresh BIOS into a graphics card with issues. It's been fixed for a few months now but we were up front about it and explained to her that it may actually not be fixed and if the problem comes back it likely will need an ABS module, she's just thankful it's working for now.

The nice thing about techline is they see problem trends before the service data is updated so they can steer you in that direction. Sometimes they are completely useless. Like I had a rig that had incessant evap issues prior. I did a fuel pump recall and like 2 months later comes back in for another small evap leak and the customer is threatening lemon law which means I deflect to techline. I did my checks. I suspected they busted another flap set for the 3rd time. I had smoke tested it and pulled up the fuel pump cover. Nothing. So I call techline and they are like "NAH YOU DOIN IT WRONG ITS GOTTA BE THE FUEL PUMP O RING". I repeated that I tested that, and its not leaking. They said "NOPE O RING." Slap an o ring in, vehicle comes back next fill up with an evap leak.... so after 2 flap sets, I do the whole fill neck. Disappears for 12 months until it comes on again with the same code lol. This time I get a guy that finally says the frequency of failure is not enough to suspect a failed part due to defect. He agreed that they kept busting flap sets.

 

I've been seeing more of that in these late 2000s and early 2010 cars. Over time they can go and get corrupt data in the ROM and cause issues. Honda is famous for ghost misfires due to ROM being corrupt during a low voltage state. Usually 4 cylinder cars and they barely run. ECM reset, CKP pattern clear, CKP learn and its usually fine.

 

New guy we hired took on one of those auto zone diags while I was on vacation. I knew nothing about it, then all the sudden hes doing a VSA modulator on it when I get back. I ask him what was up with it and hes like 'ya I couldn't communicate with the ABS system and auto zone said he needed a module so I recommended one".  I just give him the good luck and godspeed head nod and continue with my work as the seal for the module was already opened so he was married to it. Hooked it up and bled the system. Turned the key on and same issue. Can't communicate with the scan tool. I tell him that usually Honda modulators will throw an ECU failure code. If you ain't communicating then check your powers and grounds. He has no idea where to start for that.... I show him the diagram which may as well be written in French Canadian to him. So I say, start at the top. Check fuses, check at the connector, then check grounds. Checks the fuse which is a 7.5a ignition signal fuse just for the VSA modulator. Fuse is missing. Install a fuse and what do you know... it works.

 

So yeah, this new generation of techs are gonna be mislead on absolute BS by these "find a fix" and future AI shit.

[Bitter]

 

It's car related. Realized I left the 'HDR" mode on the camera which makes all the daytime footage look over-processed.

[Vonrottes]

Getting prepped for Carlisle truck national next week, did a thorough cleaning.

 

 

Hit the wheels with the special sauces and they actually don't look awful.

Definitely not perfect, but September I'm going to setup my powder coating stuff. Got some nasty spare G8 wheels I'm going to test polishing and clear powder. Or might do some kind of candy, haven't really browsed powder options for these wheels.

 

 

Interior still needs a good scrub, but it's time for a food break today.

Wednesday she will also get another wash and quick coat of Jax wax spray & seal before the 360 mile drive Thursday morning.