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

[bcredeur97]

Current status in southern Louisiana:

Freezing rain all yesterday afternoon into the night, combined with 35mph winds...  Power went out at home around 10:15. 

Woke up at 4:30ish, it was 44F inside my house.... so I promptly decided to just go to work super early lol

I could only open the driver's door on my car. Every other door had enough ice that I couldn't open them. How lucky is that? 

19F and the Touareg fired right up; although I did fill it up a couple days ago with plenty of Stanadyne, knowing the weather was coming. 

Where I live it was PITCH Black. I've never seen it so dark. So that was interesting

Was surprised I didn't come across any closed roads. Although I did leave super early. Stupid people still speeding over black ice and I'm seeing more and more reports of accidents since I got to work lol

[vetali]

22 hours ago, Bitter said:

Who's an idiot? I'm an idiot! I forgot to unplug my dash cam from the cig socket, the socket is live all the time direct to battery unlike my previous and other current car, so it ran all weekend and killed my battery so low it froze solid. I forgot to unplug it because I've been lazy and haven't installed the hardwire kit. I'm going to do that tomorrow on lunch, honest. Battery is currently in the bathroom on the counter in front of the heater with the 1.25a slow charger on it slowly coming back to life. I'm really considering sucking it up and ditching the flooded for AGM. Any compelling, besides cost, reasons not to?

In my experience they go bad about as often as flooded. Plus newer cars with battery management systems likely won't properly charge an AGM if its designed for flooded. So no real point in spending extra IMO.

 

Our pipes froze at work, waste oil heater being a bitch and wont get hot enough to stay on, plus slow af. Been a great week.

[Bitter]

1 hour ago, vetali said:

In my experience they go bad about as often as flooded. Plus newer cars with battery management systems likely won't properly charge an AGM if its designed for flooded. So no real point in spending extra IMO.

 

Our pipes froze at work, waste oil heater being a bitch and wont get hot enough to stay on, plus slow af. Been a great week.

Makes sense.

We haven't had any cold weather problems thankfully.

[Beerzerker]

On 1/11/2024 at 8:37 PM, bcredeur97 said:

it used to be you could get batteries and they would last about 7 years. Those days are long over though lol

Some batteries that fail can be brought back to working condition, depending on "How" it failed.

I'm aware of at least two tricks for different bad battery scenarios that may (Or may not) work, again it's based on how the battery failed and of course I can't guarantee success everytime. 
You'd have to try them and see for yourself.

One thing is you can do is take a welder and boil a battery to break loose sulfation that collects at the bottom of a cell, causing it to have a short resulting in a bad cell. You can Google about it if you want, there are vids that shows/tells how it's done and demonstrates it too. 

The other trick I know is in the case of a battery that has been sitting for a VERY long time, and the battery went dead from sitting all that time (Wasn't a bad battery when it's useage was stopped), and now it's simply refusing to accept a charge because of it.
Epsom salts can get it to start working again.

I'm well aware there is a point when something is just used up and that's it.
These tricks could help get the most life from one (Bang for your buck) or even get a battery working you coudn't afford to get replaced when the need for one happens, if it's failed for one of these reasons.

The bad cell trick is subjective of course, the one that uses Epsom Salts could be a real life saver or at least a cost breaker.
Like anything else, results can and will vary.

[bcredeur97]

2 hours ago, vetali said:

In my experience they go bad about as often as flooded. Plus newer cars with battery management systems likely won't properly charge an AGM if its designed for flooded. So no real point in spending extra IMO.

 

Our pipes froze at work, waste oil heater being a bitch and wont get hot enough to stay on, plus slow af. Been a great week.

Here’s a frozen A8 for u 

[vetali]

19 minutes ago, bcredeur97 said:

Here’s a frozen A8 for u 

 

Frozen passport after 20 minutes of remote start. Still couldn't get in the vehicle.

[Bitter]

Just throw some boiling water on it /s

[Bitter]

4 hours ago, vetali said:

In my experience they go bad about as often as flooded. Plus newer cars with battery management systems likely won't properly charge an AGM if its designed for flooded. So no real point in spending extra IMO.

 

Our pipes froze at work, waste oil heater being a bitch and wont get hot enough to stay on, plus slow af. Been a great week.

So ended up having a cold weather problem at work. Couldn't smoke test a car, I had flow but no visible smoke from the open vent. I'm pretty sure the -10F gas was condensing the smoke out of the air.

[vetali]

2 hours ago, Bitter said:

So ended up having a cold weather problem at work. Couldn't smoke test a car, I had flow but no visible smoke from the open vent. I'm pretty sure the -10F gas was condensing the smoke out of the air.

Or it couldn't get hot enough to burn the mineral oil. My ultrasonic was only hitting 55c today. Had to clean more used oil heater parts. Found an old ass manual that was different from the PDFs I was getting online and found another strainer around the suction pump. Cleaned it and oil flow improved but chamber temps are still bad. I think the oil is aerating due to a bad filter seal.

[Bitter]

4 hours ago, vetali said:

Or it couldn't get hot enough to burn the mineral oil. My ultrasonic was only hitting 55c today. Had to clean more used oil heater parts. Found an old ass manual that was different from the PDFs I was getting online and found another strainer around the suction pump. Cleaned it and oil flow improved but chamber temps are still bad. I think the oil is aerating due to a bad filter seal.

Nope, smoke was coming out of the machine just fine. Defo took a honk on that on that Bobo. I always make sure it's putting out visible smoke.

 

I warned you about that ultrasonic addiction

[TVwazhere]

On 1/15/2024 at 8:27 PM, Bitter said:

I'm going to do that tomorrow on lunch, honest.

Did you install that hardwire kit?  

 

I've never bought a dash cam for any of my vehicles without one, because I know myself and I'd do exactly what you did a lot. Just today I stopped at a store for a few minutes and when I came back my car door was wide open (it's 15ºF here)

[Bismut]

19 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

Just today I stopped at a store for a few minutes and when I came back my car door was wide open (it's 15ºF here)

How? I have heard of people leaving their car running while going to the movies, I have seen countless people leaving their windows down like 5cm while parked and now someone leaving their door open? I have never seen anything like that in Europe, I guess America is just different in that regard because of how car-centric it is?

[TVwazhere]

6 minutes ago, Bismut said:

someone leaving their door open?

I am a special class of stupid (truly, just not paying enough attention)

[Bismut]

2 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

I am a special class of stupid (truly, just not paying enough attention)

Eh yeah same, but I feel like I would not leave my car door open when going to a store.

I do forget almost everyones name though, so that is fun

[bcredeur97]

26 minutes ago, Bismut said:

Eh yeah same, but I feel like I would not leave my car door open when going to a store.

I do forget almost everyones name though, so that is fun

I used to leave the top of my miata down when walking into the UPS store. I got nervous doing that though lol

[Bitter]

7 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

Did you install that hardwire kit?  

 

I've never bought a dash cam for any of my vehicles without one, because I know myself and I'd do exactly what you did a lot. Just today I stopped at a store for a few minutes and when I came back my car door was wide open (it's 15ºF here)

No, I was sick as shit and came in 2 hours late. Migraines suck enough already but mine always twist my guts up in knots and foul up my digestion, basically a lot of my autonomic functions go haywire. Body temp regulation, digestion, blood pressure, to an extent pulse rate. If I move too fast I get dizzy or light headed, my balance is really bad, I can't think very fast, etc. I had to wait for it to calm down enough and meds to work enough to be safe to drive. I still felt bad at lunch time so I relaxed for a couple minutes then went back at it since I came in late.

I'm going to do it tomorrow. There's no ign switched fuses in the cabin, anything ign switched is under hood. There's no clean place to get wiring through into the cabin, the single pass through is taped up really tight and in a bad location to access one end of it in the engine bay since it hangs low. Some rando YT vid claims there's a white wire at the BCM that's ign switched so I'm going to check that tomorrow to make sure and see what's powering it to make sure it's safe to use. Assuming it is then I'll route everything and splice in my wiring and be done forgetting. Already forgot when I got home.

 

I once started my car to go somewhere, locked the door with my spare key to go inside and go to the bathroom, got distracted, got side tracked, got distracted again, forgot I was going to go somewhere, and about 2 hours later remembered I was supposed to go somewhere to get something I'd need later, couldn't find my keys, looked all over for like another 40 minutes, got my spare out of my wallet and went out to go drive with the spare key to find my car locked and running, THEN remembered I had already started it. Thankfully I haven't been that bad in a long time, life is much less distracting now than it used to be.

[Bismut]

13 hours ago, bcredeur97 said:

I used to leave the top of my miata down when walking into the UPS store. I got nervous doing that though lol

Entirely different story with a convertible though, I would leave the top down as well. All valuables in the boot or some sort of locked compartement.

 

6 hours ago, Bitter said:

I once started my car to go somewhere, locked the door with my spare key to go inside and go to the bathroom, got distracted, got side tracked, got distracted again, forgot I was going to go somewhere, and about 2 hours later remembered I was supposed to go somewhere to get something I'd need later, couldn't find my keys, looked all over for like another 40 minutes, got my spare out of my wallet and went out to go drive with the spare key to find my car locked and running, THEN remembered I had already started it. Thankfully I haven't been that bad in a long time, life is much less distracting now than it used to be.

That looped back around to being impressive, wow.

[Bitter]

9 hours ago, Bismut said:

Entirely different story with a convertible though, I would leave the top down as well. All valuables in the boot or some sort of locked compartement.

 

That looped back around to being impressive, wow.

Thanks.

[TVwazhere]

On 1/17/2024 at 10:36 PM, Bitter said:

I'm going to do it tomorrow.

[Bitter]

6 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

I forgot the solder splices I needed at home. I was pissed. Got the right wire, only on with ignition and doesn't drop out when cranking, comes from a dumb relay switched 15A fuse.

[Bitter]

10 hours ago, TVwazhere said:

All I had time to do today was splice the tap into the wire.

Depinned the terminal, cut about 3-4mm insulation off, split the strands, stuck the other wire through and wrapped it, slid a solder shrink on it, heated it at either end to seal it, hested the middle to solder it, cooled with wet fingers, reassembled. Should last a couple decades. Probably had room for the solder iron and good lead solder but this was faster and easier.

[bcredeur97]

Hey ummm guys what do you do when the gas pump has a cylinder 4 misfire? 
 

[Scrubs]

On 12/30/2023 at 11:55 PM, Bitter said:

Pretty much keep it fixed and they go a long time without problems, it's only when they get neglected they get unreliable. Not amazing on gas tho.

Yea i get around 11l for 100km, but i drive as a mad man so i think thats good.

[RevoltTrain]

Got her all done finally. Rides much much better than prior as well. Just in time as well, got a foot of snow last night after bringing her home

[AlwaysFSX]

3 hours ago, bcredeur97 said:

Hey ummm guys what do you do when the gas pump has a cylinder 4 misfire? 
 

 

Does the pump have the misfire, or can it tell your car has the misfire?