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

[bcredeur97]

2 hours ago, Bitter said:

I know that feeling. I think my Celica isn't that small until I'm next to modern 'sporty' small cars and I'm like...damn my Celica is small but then I park next to a MR-2 Spyder or a Miata and I'm like damn THAT is a small car!

 

The first time my GF's mother saw my car was in Chicago, they ended up driving together in the mothers car behind me for a bit and her mother kept saying how tiny my car was, they could see clear over the top of my car from their Ford Edge. Makes me nervous when a Semi truck pulls up behind me like if they're not paying attention they probably can't even tell I'm there over the hood of their truck.

Same feeling in my Miata. There’s truly nothing like it on the roads. 

 

However that said, I do notice that everyone seems to be more respectful of my Miata than anything else I drive. I feel like I never get cut off or anything in it for the most part. I’ve been driving the civic the past week and everyone is so rude to me  I’m not used to it 

 

that said I generally stay off interstates where I live now. My commute is entirely 55mph 2 lane roads except for a small section of town

[Bitter]

52 minutes ago, vinyldash303 said:

Mello Yello

You mean blinding annoying glare for all oncoming drivers? Yes, they're great at that. Those are 'driving/fog' lights in name only and are there strictly as a cosmetic accessory because some other make/model in the segment had them and they knew some buyers would buy the other brand just because it had them. It's utterly stupid the state of OEM auxiliary lighting these days. In days gone by the fog lights or driving lights were exactly that and they were useful lights often made by a competent manufacturer of lamps. Like Hella for example and the Comet series of aux lamps that could be equipped on Mercedes in the 80's.

[ProfBrown]

Well, semi new to the forum, cars are more of my forte at the least. Traded in my truck in early 2019 for a more fuel efficient car. I know my stuff on the GM platform from 07-13 for the 1500s pretty well, and a decent amount of the years to follow or proceed that body style, 2500s included. Here is a pic of the truck, and the now car. Truck was lifted about 6 inches in the front sitting on 35s (315/70/17s), rear was about 4.5-5 inches or so. Front end had a CST lift spindle for 3.5 inches of lift, 2-2.25 inches of lift from Pro Comp Coilovers, CST unibal upper arms, rear was a 3 inch block, Zone AAL, bilstein 5100 shocks. Had 17x8.5 inch 0 Offset method NV rims. Db by Corsa Cat back, custom tuned by Diablew, Corsa CAI. The general goodies for a truck of its style. Did all the work myself taking it from stock to what it was in this pic. Could bomb washes in So Cal at 50-60 pretty well.

The car is a 2015 VW Golf TDI Sportwagen SE trim. Diesel gets me the good mileage and pretty comfortable.Doing 700 miles a week in a truck getting just under 14.5 mpg wasn't that fun lol. Now the 37+ mpg is much nicer! Mods to the wagon include tint and aftermarket headlight assemblies with dynamic DRLs.

 

648D786E-23FA-4155-91F5-88E95DB2C187.MOV

[ProfBrown]

2 minutes ago, vinyldash303 said:

See you say that, but with the LED DRL bulbs and fog lights on, and my LED headlights, I have yet to be flashed at night.

 

With my S10 which had halogen bulbs, I would get flashed every time I’d come back to the coast after dark. 

I agree with this gent. I had in my truck HID bulbs, 5500k in color, and that was in a reflector housing. I only got flashed when I was towing, and I do about 10-15 hours a week a night.

[RevoltTrain]

2 hours ago, Bitter said:

You mean blinding annoying glare for all oncoming drivers? Yes, they're great at that. Those are 'driving/fog' lights in name only and are there strictly as a cosmetic accessory because some other make/model in the segment had them and they knew some buyers would buy the other brand just because it had them. It's utterly stupid the state of OEM auxiliary lighting these days. In days gone by the fog lights or driving lights were exactly that and they were useful lights often made by a competent manufacturer of lamps. Like Hella for example and the Comet series of aux lamps that could be equipped on Mercedes in the 80's.

Wow, you really have no idea what you're talking about, do you?

1 hour ago, vinyldash303 said:

See you say that, but with the LED DRL bulbs and fog lights on, and my LED headlights, I have yet to be flashed at night.

 

With my S10 which had halogen bulbs, I would get flashed every time I’d come back to the coast after dark. 

Those things were dumb bright in person, I could definitely see why

[Bitter]

There are not any "DOT" certified anything. DOT doesn't certify anything. DOT sets standards and people claim to adhere to them but they don't and they don't get caught unless it's a big enough money maker. Like when companies have been busted for illegally importing unapproved HID lamps as 'rock mining lights' that were clearly destined for road use.

 

Saying you don't get flashed must means it's OK is like akin to saying that not getting caught for shop lifting must mean it's OK. It's not OK to shop lift, regardless if you get caught or not.

 

Likely the reason your S10 gets flashed is because the rear springs are sagged and your low beams are pointed up too high or they're just poorly aimed otherwise.

 

 

Improper lighting doesn't just adversely affect others but it also adversely affects you too, almost always the foreground is disproportionately over illuminated which causes a loss in distance vision that's not realized until it's too late. When near the front of the vehicle is overly lit two things happen, firstly your gaze is drawn to the brightest easiest to see areas so you end up inadvertently looking down near the road close in to the vehicle at night. Secondly that overly lit area causes your pupils to contract in response to the high brightness. Now you're looking at the road too close to your truck AND your pupils are closed. Look at a bright light then immediately look into a far off dimly lit area, two things become apparent. You can't see much as your pupils are expanding because they open more slowly than they close and you're unable to quickly focus on and recognize objects to categorize them as dangerous or not. Is that a car with it's lights off or is that a couch or is that a moose, is it moving with me, toward me, lateral to me, or stationary. At 60mph you're moving 90 feet every second. You need to be able to see more than one second ahead of yourself at night, the average reaction time to shift a foot and start braking is about 1/2 second or 50 feet. That's after you've decided if you need to brake or steer. Add about another 1/2 second for the decision to happen. So now you've gone 50 feet decided you need to brake and gone another 50 feet to start braking in a vehicle that takes about 120 feet to go from 60 to a full stop. You need to be able to see 2-3 seconds ahead with clarity at night to safely drive. This is why I slow down at night, I can't see as far even with great head lights the ability to determine what objects are and their speed and path relative to my own is compromised and the easiest way to reduce that danger is to just slow down to allow more time to react. If your lights are super bright close up to your truck then even if they're actually brighter down the road it doesn't matter, you can't actually see better because the human eye isn't built to work like that. You need lighting that works WITH your stupid human eyes rather than against it. Less light close in, more light down the road and ON the road, you'll be able to see better, see safer, and be better off for it.

 

Also bluer light makes it harder for your eyes to focus on objects despite appearing brighter, this is because the light glares inside your eyes more but doesn't trigger your pupils to contract correctly. Daniel Stern summarizes it well.

Quote

Does the scattering tendency of blue light affect headlamp performance and road safety in other ways?

Yes, in two ways:

Because blue light scatters very readily in the human eye, casting a beam that's blue-tinted by any amount in a rainy, foggy or snowy environment causes increased perceived backglare for the driver of a car equipped with blue headlamp bulbs.

Also, blue light per se creates increased glare for oncoming traffic. That's because blue light does not trigger a strong pupil-closing response in human eyes. It is yellow light that stimulates the human eye most strongly to constrict the pupil. Due to the comparatively weak pupil response to blue light, the human eye is very glare-sensitive to a blue signal image. With the yellow light filtered out by the blue bulb and prevented from reaching the observer's eyes, the pupils remain wider open than they should, and the eyes are hit with a blast of difficult-to-process blue light.

Lights above about 5000K don't offer any real benefits and begin to diminish the returns quickly.

[ProfBrown]

41 minutes ago, vinyldash303 said:

The LED headlight bulbs I’ve got are DOT certified which I’m sure helps a lot. The DRL bulbs are’t quite as bright as the turn signals when they’re being fed the ‘blink’ signal. The new LED fog bulbs are brighter than the old halogen ones but they don’t seem to be much more ‘intense’. If I do get flashed because of them, I’ll slap some tint over top the lens to take the edge off. 

Lol my HID kit was not DOT approved by any means. DDM tuning Chinese knock offs of Morimoto Kits 

[Bitter]

Just now, RevoltTrain said:

Wow, you really have no idea what you're talking about, do you?

Those things were dumb bright in person, I could definitely see why

Yes, I clearly know nothing about automotive lighting which has been a decade long hobby of mine. But go off. Tell me how Chinese vendors and people with zero knowledge of lighting and lamp design know more than multi million dollar corporations and government agencies employing highly degree'd scientists and engineers.

[RevoltTrain]

1 minute ago, Bitter said:

Yes, I clearly know nothing about automotive lighting which has been a decade long hobby of mine. But go off. Tell me how Chinese vendors and people with zero knowledge of lighting and lamp design know more than multi million dollar corporations and government agencies employing highly degree'd scientists and engineers.

Nothing better than a butt hurt copy paste warrior to end the weekend off with

 

Top kek

[Bitter]

1 minute ago, RevoltTrain said:

Nothing better than a butt hurt copy paste warrior to end the weekend off with

 

Top kek

I'm sorry, I only copy pasted the small section which could better explain a more technical aspect and to credit the source of my knowledge rather than parrot it like it was my own. I've aggregated much of my knowledge on automotive lighting, which began as a hobby over a decade ago, from a multitude of sources including articles written by Daniel Stern, DOT/FMVSS documents, and scientific papers, as well as from online interactions with other people involved in the industry and creating lighting standards.

 

I'm sorry that science and fact don't agree with you, but the great thing about science and fact which was so well put by Neil DeGrasse Tyson is it doesn't matter if you believe it, it's still true. So while you or whomever else are making yourselves less safe at night I'll be working to make myself more safe at night and reduce my chances of hitting a deer I couldn't see because I've intentionally blinded myself with poor lighting. I can only hope that no one is ever hurt as a result of poor choices made by yourself.

[vetali]

if your oncoming and your setup is trash, you getting flash burn from the stock lights in my civic. 

[Bitter]

4 minutes ago, vinyldash303 said:

Aight look, build me a yellow LED bulb for my fog lights and I’ll use it. I’m sure you can do a better job. 

 

For the record: The morimoto second gen 2 strokes in my low beams are DOT compliant/approved/whatever adjective will un rustle your jimmies, the bulbs in my fog lights probably aren’t, but they work fine. Now that the sun has set, I can tell you they don’t seem to glare any more than the halogens. Haven’t been flashed yet. I’ve got an 18 hr drive down to socal on tuesday. Will report back. 

They're not DOT anything, trust me, TRS/Morimoto has no right to claim that and if the government cared it could come down on them like a ton of bricks, but they just don't care because 'dey tuk er jerbs' is the hot issue right now. The very nature of how LED bulbs produce light means that a lamp must be designed around the light source not the other way around as there's NO way for a LED to emulate a glowing filament. Even a HID arc is different than a filament in regards to the shape of the arc (it bows up because it's hot plasma) and the locations of the hot spots (ends of the arc are brighter) so a HID lamp won't focus correctly in a lamp designed for a halogen filament. But a LED is a point light source producing from a single point and emitting on a semi-spherical pattern instead of a whole sphere of light. They've gotten closer, Philips has made some fog lamp only LED bulbs which are safe to use in many fog lamps and even some LED drop in bulbs which are safe to use in some halogen lamps but they don't perform any better than halogen and in most cases a little worse than halogen at a substantially higher cost. It just doesn't work financially or practically to do it that way.

[ProfBrown]

25 minutes ago, Bitter said:

Yes, I clearly know nothing about automotive lighting which has been a decade long hobby of mine. But go off. Tell me how Chinese vendors and people with zero knowledge of lighting and lamp design know more than multi million dollar corporations and government agencies employing highly degree'd scientists and engineers.

My one critique of this comment is that it doesn’t mention that while yes they are multimillion dollar companies, and have high degreed scientist, they still are in the business of making money. By this they make good enough, not stellar. Prime example, when high end was going to projector style headlights which are far better, low end was still doing reflectors. And still to this day some auto makers use reflector housings. I agree with what you’re saying for the most part but you are missing this crucial point. Auto makers don’t give us the best, they give/sell us the most marketable and highest bargain items, that are still compliant with gov regulations. 

[Bitter]

11 minutes ago, vinyldash303 said:

Neil DeGrasse Tyson also also laughed at SpaceX developing reusable rockets. Lad’s one of the smartest idiots I’ve ever listened to. I Respect the man, but damn. 

Well they're still bleeding money worse than Tesla so he's not wrong about it being financially un-viable with current technology, they're getting closer to a break even point but that was never the company or Musk's purpose. His purpose with all his ventures seems to be to inspire others to compete and drive down the cost through economy of scale. If several companies are all doing the same thing then they'll all lower the cost of the thing by the commonly shared infrastructure created.

 

9 minutes ago, ProfBrown said:

My one critique of this comment is that it doesn’t mention that while yes they are multimillion dollar companies, and have high degreed scientist, they still are in the business of making money. By this they make good enough, not stellar. Prime example, when high end was going to projector style headlights which are far better, low end was still doing reflectors. And still to this day some auto makers use reflector housings. I agree with what you’re saying for the most part but you are missing this crucial point. Auto makers don’t give us the best, they give/sell us the most marketable and highest bargain items, that are still compliant with gov regulations. 

Actually reflector lamps are more efficient at using light than projector lamps, but it's not a huge margin when both are properly designed. A projector cutoff shield wastes the light that strikes it. Either lamp can be designed to create a good beam pattern with an appropriate cutoff especially with modern computer modeling and design. It becomes a design choice in regards to what fits the vehicle aesthetically and physically. Reflector lamps can be made more shallow than projector lamps can be made so for some vehicles a reflect may be the only choice as it always seems to be that lighting takes a back seat to other design considerations.

 

Also the government scientists don't have a financial incentive, they're just doing their jobs.

[ProfBrown]

13 minutes ago, Bitter said:

Actually reflector lamps are more efficient at using light than projector lamps, but it's not a huge margin when both are properly designed. A projector cutoff shield wastes the light that strikes it. Either lamp can be designed to create a good beam pattern with an appropriate cutoff especially with modern computer modeling and design. It becomes a design choice in regards to what fits the vehicle aesthetically and physically. Reflector lamps can be made more shallow than projector lamps can be made so for some vehicles a reflect may be the only choice as it always seems to be that lighting takes a back seat to other design considerations.

 

Also the government scientists don't have a financial incentive, they're just doing their jobs.

While I agree with you in theory, in my hours of night driving weekly, down country roads and paved 4 lane highways, in practice halogens in reflectors are the ones that blind me the most. 

 

Cars old and new reflector lead to more spread of light and less control. In many cases, blinding others far worse than projectors, while also based on halogen bulbs, not putting light out as far as an LED or HID. Granted this is anecdotal but holds true even right before I pulled off the road on my way home to write this post. 

[Boyohan]

9 hours ago, bcredeur97 said:

When you think the Focus RS is a “small” car and you see this

 

The Focus use to be a small car but for every new model the size is increased slightly.

This is true for most car manufacturers.

A brand new VW Polo is about the same size as a 20yo Golf. 

I understand the reason for this but I can't say that I like it as a smaller car is usually much more fun to drive.

I used to have a mk2 Golf GTI and it was awesome and while newer GTIs are much better cars they aren't quite as much fun.

[Euchre]

On 8/31/2019 at 1:16 PM, TheLostTroll13 said:

 

Can't say I'm totally enthralled with all of your aesthetic elements, but the concept and what I see of the fabrication looks brilliant. Looks like something that you'd want to tear down a dirt trail in the southwest with, assuming there might be a skid pan under it.

[bcredeur97]

What's the best way to fix a seatbelt that's slow to retract? Just cleaning it really well?

[Bitter]

8 hours ago, ProfBrown said:

While I agree with you in theory, in my hours of night driving weekly, down country roads and paved 4 lane highways, in practice halogens in reflectors are the ones that blind me the most. 

 

Cars old and new reflector lead to more spread of light and less control. In many cases, blinding others far worse than projectors, while also based on halogen bulbs, not putting light out as far as an LED or HID. Granted this is anecdotal but holds true even right before I pulled off the road on my way home to write this post. 

Poor aim after repairs, hazing lenses, improperly installed bulbs, and poor quality replacement lamps are all leading causes of head lamp glare. Older head lamps had less precise beam control than newer lamps do and most older vehicles have reflector lamps. Also even brand new out of the box nearly all aftermarket replacement lamps and even some original equipment replacement lamps fail beam testing, and the odds of an aftermarket lamp being in use rises with the age of the vehicle. You're seeing glare from crappy lamps not from a crappy concept. If you take a look at countries where head light aim and beam are tested as part of yearly inspection and more tightly regulated you'd see a lot less glare on the road. In Europe for example ECE head lights, while regulated to allow more glare than DOT standards, are more tightly controlled in regards to proper aim on vehicle and more consistently tested to ensure those sold with ECE marks are actually ECE compliant. Glare on roads from oncoming vehicles is much less of an issue, so much so that they allow fantastic things like adaptive selective high beams and other really great forward lighting technologies. They also don't allow red brake/turn combination lights which are fairly unsafe as well, but that's a divergent topic.

 

https://www.capacertified.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/CAPALighting3.pdf

https://www.capacertified.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/CAPALighting1.pdf

And it hasn't gotten better a decade later either.

https://www.capacertified.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/QualityWatch-Report-2-New.pdf

 

 

We try to use CAPA certified lights at the shop when possible, but they're not available for every vehicle. I've seen some cars where the only lamps available are aftermarket and they're abysmal in fit and performance and I feel ashamed letting the car go out like that but there's simply no other option for a 1988 Dodge Colt or some crappy old cars like that.

 

8 hours ago, vinyldash303 said:

Either company can go profitable at the drop of a hat. It is better with the current economy to continue pouring money into infrastructure and R&D than it is to turn a profit. 

I have doubt that either could do so at the drop of a hat.

[Bitter]

3 minutes ago, bcredeur97 said:

What's the best way to fix a seatbelt that's slow to retract? Just cleaning it really well?

Pull it out all the way, put a clip on it to hold it out, get a bucket of warm water and dish soap or laundry detergent and wash it like you'd wash dirty clothes by hand. If it's really nasty bad you can pre-treat it with something a little stronger like full strength pine-sol. Once it's washed leave it pulled out to pat it dry with a towel then leave it out to air dry, it won't take very long. While it's out and drying clean the bar it slides over, often there will be a buildup of gross oils and dead skin parts on it that make it slow to slide the belt past as well as at the buckle where it loops through.  If it's still slow you've probably got a weak spring, sometimes a very light dusting of a dry silicone spray lube will get them retracting better once they've been washed thoroughly.

[ProfBrown]

14 minutes ago, Bitter said:

Poor aim after repairs, hazing lenses, improperly installed bulbs, and poor quality replacement lamps are all leading causes of head lamp glare. Older head lamps had less precise beam control than newer lamps do and most older vehicles have reflector lamps. Also even brand new out of the box nearly all aftermarket replacement lamps and even some original equipment replacement lamps fail beam testing, and the odds of an aftermarket lamp being in use rises with the age of the vehicle. You're seeing glare from crappy lamps not from a crappy concept. If you take a look at countries where head light aim and beam are tested as part of yearly inspection and more tightly regulated you'd see a lot less glare on the road. In Europe for example ECE head lights, while regulated to allow more glare than DOT standards, are more tightly controlled in regards to proper aim on vehicle and more consistently tested to ensure those sold with ECE marks are actually ECE compliant. Glare on roads from oncoming vehicles is much less of an issue, so much so that they allow fantastic things like adaptive selective high beams and other really great forward lighting technologies. They also don't allow red brake/turn combination lights which are fairly unsafe as well, but that's a divergent topic  

Interesting point of view and research thanks! 

[PandaCopyRight]

18 hours ago, Energycore said:

I don't have the dough to pay for it upfront right now but I'm thinking very hard about it.

 

It's a 2008 with 77000km (48k miles) though I've heard that people can trick the mileage meter to show less than it actually is, so the listing might be deceitful. And it's $4.5k. https://auto.mercadolibre.com.mx/MLM-703972261-saab-9-3-20-turbo-_JM

(exchange rate for mexican peso is 20:1 though cars are generally cheaper here)

 

There's a 2003 model for just under $3k also

 

Stop or you'll make me buy this thing lol

Dude ... im telling you .. give it a test drive and you'll just find the money to get it  

[vetali]

1 hour ago, bcredeur97 said:

What's the best way to fix a seatbelt that's slow to retract? Just cleaning it really well?

Is it your honda?

[bcredeur97]

35 minutes ago, vetali said:

Is it your honda?

yes

[bcredeur97]

Interesting, apparently some cars may be vulnerable to the year 2038 problem.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem
 

Quote

Many transportation systems from flight to automobiles use embedded systems extensively. In automotive systems, this may include anti-lock braking system (ABS), electronic stability control (ESC/ESP), traction control (TCS) and automatic four-wheel drive; aircraft may use inertial guidance systems and GPS receivers. However, this does not imply that all these systems will suffer from the bug, since many such systems do not require access to dates. For those that do, those systems which only track the difference between times/dates and not absolute times/dates will, by the nature of the calculation, not experience a major problem. This is the case for automotive diagnostics based on legislative standards such as CARB (California Air Resources Board).^[6]

Wonder how manufactures will handle the ones that are.... if I had to guess probably ignored