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  #16  
Old 08-06-2014, 06:34 PM
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Hopefully, they'll be looking at early-2000s engines and wondering why there isn't an electric motor there instead!

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  #17  
Old 08-06-2014, 07:10 PM
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Quote:
I hear that Mercedes requires their StarTech computer to reset the system whenever the brakes are serviced.
On the SBC equipped cars all you have to do is unplug the SBC unit while you service the brakes. Make sure key is not in ignition.
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  #18  
Old 08-06-2014, 07:16 PM
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There are tons of cars that are simple to work on with a manual. The 04 explorer I am tearing apart is a mess of sensors, wires and tubes but ultimately it's still an internal combustion engine. It takes more patience to label all the wires and stuff, but really it isn't too much different. I have installed suspension components on brand new VWs, brakes, brake lines, exhaust and intake on the bmw, etc. there's a ton of stuff to do. The other mentality is that antique cars are the best kind of father son projects!
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  #19  
Old 08-06-2014, 08:42 PM
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Originally Posted by spdrun View Post
Hopefully, they'll be looking at early-2000s engines and wondering why there isn't an electric motor there instead!
Years ago I would take my kids to look at old cars and they would ask me why the valve rockers were on the outside of the engine.

And I have even had people ask me what the big compressor thing is on the front of some 1939 Packard engines. I tell them it is the A/C compressor, the first of its' kind.

It looks like the sort of thing you would see on an air-braked truck from the sixties.
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  #20  
Old 08-06-2014, 08:48 PM
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Originally Posted by cmac2012 View Post
And someday the poor fool trying to keep that car running as the 2nd or 3rd owner is going to wish he had a dipstick cuzzin the readout done broke. I can see how it might be an attractive feature. I don't like being lulled into casual complacency by oil warning lights. It's a bad thing to miss. Low oil that is.
"Electricity - the high priest of false security!"
How Basil Rathbone explains a museum's new security system in the 1944 Sherlock-Holmes film 'The Pearl of Death'.

Happy Motoring, Mark
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  #21  
Old 08-06-2014, 10:16 PM
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Still a lot basic hand tools can handle with a manual.

I'd like to try and get one of those Chinese MB star tools you see online for sale for $300.00 and find a cheap Windows laptop. Saw some great reviews online about them from the forums. I already know the program in and out.
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  #22  
Old 08-06-2014, 10:57 PM
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Originally Posted by Idle View Post
I foresee a market for dipsticks coming. Add on kits to give your car something that others don't.

Find a place in the lower block, drill a hole, tap it out and install a dipstick tube and stick from an old 240D.

Fifty years from now kids will look at old cars from the early 2000's and point to the dipstick. Then they will ask their Fathers, "Hey, what's that thing for?"
I was in the market the other day and saw quite a few dipsticks.
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  #23  
Old 08-07-2014, 02:20 AM
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Originally Posted by spdrun View Post
I went test-driving with a friend last week. Most cars (expensive over-engineered crap aside) do in fact have dipsticks. If anything, changing the oil in some cars is easier than it was years ago.

I liked how the FR-S/BRZ had the oil filter with the threads facing down, surrounded by a little lip so you could unscrew it a bit, let the oil run back down into the engine, bag it up, then finish unscrewing. No oily mess.
When we were test driving the 2011 Forester, this was one of the things I noticed and actually had me sold on the car. Even the alternator, compressor and power steering are all on the top of the (boxer/flat 4) engine, so they're easy to access. You can tell a lot of thought and design was put into this engine for the DIYer.

Some (most?) cars still have the oil filter at the bottom, making a mess each time it's replaced.
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  #24  
Old 08-07-2014, 07:53 AM
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From "The more things change dept. "
model T Fords had no dipstick, either. They had 2 peacocks. If you opened the lower peacock and no oil ran out, you added oil until it ran out of the upper petcock.
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  #25  
Old 08-07-2014, 08:36 AM
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It's all a matter of harrumphing vs adaptation. Before you'd have to tune a couple side draft carbs, now it's programming a mega squirt. 6 of one half dozen of the other.
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  #26  
Old 08-07-2014, 10:08 AM
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Originally Posted by MBeige View Post
When we were test driving the 2011 Forester, this was one of the things I noticed and actually had me sold on the car. Even the alternator, compressor and power steering are all on the top of the (boxer/flat 4) engine, so they're easy to access. You can tell a lot of thought and design was put into this engine for the DIYer.

Some (most?) cars still have the oil filter at the bottom, making a mess each time it's replaced.
Bottom? Amateur! Do it like Fjord and put it straight out the side of the block. Gives oyu a nice rust-revention coating every time you change the oil
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  #27  
Old 08-07-2014, 11:13 AM
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I will never understand with all the technology on cars (and wireless TPMS sensors and stuff like that) why we don't have a few simple idiot lights.

They don't even need to be separate lights.. all cars have LCD or other types of screens.

They should be BIG red warnings like the "ABC STOP CAR TOO LOW" warning that flashes up in red on ABC equipped MB's.

The warnings (and their associated causes) should be:
STOP CAR NOW AND TOW
-Very low or no oil pressure - leak in oil pan about to cause engine death
-Sudden drop in coolant pressure (most cars have a sensor, so why can't it watch for drops?) - covers radiator failure, burst hoses, etc.

STOP CAR AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
-Alternator stopped charging even though engine is running at least ___ RPM. Alternator has died and you're about to get stranded
-Overheating (red zone on coolant gauge) - about to cook a head gasket
-Transmission fluid really low or no pressure found - must be a leak in transmission or cooler and transmission is about to burn up.
-No power steering pressure - leak about to cause a PS system failure or run the pump dry

My fridge warns me with a beep every 30 seconds if the fridge or freezer door was left open or not completely closed. Cost of implementing this is probably $0.01 per fridge when you spread the cost out over the number of fridges built.

Doesn't anyone want a 'car that saves you $5k by warning you ahead of time'?
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  #28  
Old 08-07-2014, 11:25 AM
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Originally Posted by bhatt View Post
I will never understand with all the technology on cars (and wireless TPMS sensors and stuff like that) why we don't have a few simple idiot lights.

They don't even need to be separate lights.. all cars have LCD or other types of screens.

They should be BIG red warnings like the "ABC STOP CAR TOO LOW" warning that flashes up in red on ABC equipped MB's.

The warnings (and their associated causes) should be:
STOP CAR NOW AND TOW
-Very low or no oil pressure - leak in oil pan about to cause engine death
-Sudden drop in coolant pressure (most cars have a sensor, so why can't it watch for drops?) - covers radiator failure, burst hoses, etc.

STOP CAR AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
-Alternator stopped charging even though engine is running at least ___ RPM. Alternator has died and you're about to get stranded
-Overheating (red zone on coolant gauge) - about to cook a head gasket
-Transmission fluid really low or no pressure found - must be a leak in transmission or cooler and transmission is about to burn up.
-No power steering pressure - leak about to cause a PS system failure or run the pump dry

My fridge warns me with a beep every 30 seconds if the fridge or freezer door was left open or not completely closed. Cost of implementing this is probably $0.01 per fridge when you spread the cost out over the number of fridges built.

Doesn't anyone want a 'car that saves you $5k by warning you ahead of time'?
People still ignore it, how many VWs have died when the STOP low oil pressur elight comes on and they keep driving?

On that note, it drives me insane that new cars have fancy LCD but can't display an error code.
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  #29  
Old 08-07-2014, 11:30 AM
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Complicated Cars Killing Father and Son Ritual

Quote:
Originally Posted by bhatt View Post
I will never understand with all the technology on cars (and wireless TPMS sensors and stuff like that) why we don't have a few simple idiot lights.



They don't even need to be separate lights.. all cars have LCD or other types of screens.



They should be BIG red warnings like the "ABC STOP CAR TOO LOW" warning that flashes up in red on ABC equipped MB's.



The warnings (and their associated causes) should be:

STOP CAR NOW AND TOW

-Very low or no oil pressure - leak in oil pan about to cause engine death

-Sudden drop in coolant pressure (most cars have a sensor, so why can't it watch for drops?) - covers radiator failure, burst hoses, etc.



STOP CAR AS SOON AS POSSIBLE

-Alternator stopped charging even though engine is running at least ___ RPM. Alternator has died and you're about to get stranded

-Overheating (red zone on coolant gauge) - about to cook a head gasket

-Transmission fluid really low or no pressure found - must be a leak in transmission or cooler and transmission is about to burn up.

-No power steering pressure - leak about to cause a PS system failure or run the pump dry



My fridge warns me with a beep every 30 seconds if the fridge or freezer door was left open or not completely closed. Cost of implementing this is probably $0.01 per fridge when you spread the cost out over the number of fridges built.



Doesn't anyone want a 'car that saves you $5k by warning you ahead of time'?

Do you want lcds or do you want idiot lights? I'm not sure what to make of this post...most cars display warnings so I have no idea what you are getting at.
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  #30  
Old 08-07-2014, 11:30 AM
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Yeah, exactly my feeling on the error code.

It should be federal mandate to show any OBDII codes on the display screen somewhere in the car. I am sure if people got a 'gas cap loose' code they'd save a lot of money by not going to the dealer!

I suspect manufacturers don't want to tell us something is wrong (or what is wrong when it has broken) so we have to rely on their dealer network for parts/service.

Manuals for my appliances are easily found on the manufacturers website.. I installed my dryer electrical and vent while reading the PDF on a tablet when I needed to look up sizes/amps/etc. And all of the dryer vents fit all of the dryers... there is no specific LG dryer vent for each model of dryer they make... it's all 4".

Why does every manufacturer need to stock 20 different coolant temperature sensors, multipled by lots of manufacturer there are hundreds of devices that do the same thing.

Yet all turn signals on every car produced run on a handful of different bulb model #'s. If you stock 25 bulbs you can probably fix most turn signals that come rolling into a shop. Yet you'd have to stock hundreds and hundreds of coolant sensors.

Just seems like a lot of waste/profit/markup....

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'83 300SD 335,000km (207k) mi SOLD
'87 560SL 163,000km (101k mi) SOLD
'86 300SDL 356,000km (220k mi) SOLD
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'90 300SL 140,000km (87k mi) SOLD
'01 S430 260,000km (161k mi) SOLD
'03 SL500 167,000km (104k mi) SOLD
'07 S550 4MATIC 235,000km (146k mi) SOLD
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