I'm not sure you can argue that comfort foods (foods that are consumed for pleasure, rather than nutritional needs) are constitutionally protected, but I'm sure not going to be one to argue it.
The quote that you're partially referencing is from the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. While it is a very important document in US history, and definitely tied to the basis of our laws, it is not legally binding for anything other than to say that we are (or at the time were) declaring our separation from the English rule. It is very important in that it does indicate our founding fathers belief that these were unalienable rights, which by virtue of the fact of who it was written by and why, would apply throughout our legal system.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
The document, noting the second statement I highlighted, would be considered treasonous. Since it was a statement indicating we were taking the colonies to be an independent nation, it was.
Oddly enough, today if you were to have a significant group of Americans, and presented such a document to the government of the United States of America, you would find yourself in prison. To present such a document in the given form would mean that you represented the people of the territory that you are claiming independence for though. A nutjob group several thousand strong, while could cause significant damage, would not represent the people as a whole. This is where such action will never happen today. People have become apathetic, and are easily influenced by what they perceive as leadership groups (their political party, religious organization, or even their preferred news television/paper/website). You would never gain a consensus of the people, because they are too easily divided and confused by disinformation through those outlets.
So, telling them to go suck one is just you. Is it your inalienable right? Sure. Will you win in such a dispute against even local government? Not very likely. But with the good old question "... you and what army?", if the group backing you is large enough, you would indeed win.
I know it's possible to mistake what gear you're in. It's usually an unfamiliarity with the vehicle. In my car, it's easy for someone who's unfamiliar with it to do that, or put it in the wrong gear. I replaced the stock shifter with a "short stick". It's only a couple inches lower, but doesn't require me to move as far to shift the gears. That was partly for performance, and partly because I'm lazy.:)
I've seen people who forgot that they shifted an automatic, and done it again. It's not so bad in reverse, if you only make the mistake once. One click to reverse. The second one goes to neutral, so they just don't move. I've also seen the same mistake in drive. 3 clicks to drive (4th/OD). 3 more to 1st. Then they get all confused about why it'll only do 20mph.
I'm sure you've heard people start their car twice too. You know, that unpleasant sound where the driver turns the key again after it's started, and the starter gear jams into the flywheel rather than engaging it (since it's spinning).
People do stupid things, because they aren't paying attention, or don't really know what they're doing.
I've never seen a study on what people drive, I only know from my observations. Probably now that we're discussing it, someone will base a thesis on it.:)
Mechanics are often not even mechanics any more. They plug in the diagnostic and whatever it says is wrong, is what is wrong.
Speaking as a former mechanic, fuck you very much. OBD II codes serve to provide you a place to look, nothing more.
Say for example the code is a misfire on Cylinder 3. Great. Do you have any idea how many different things can cause a misfire?... It's not as simple as just "this is broken, please replace it." Many dealerships do this, but real shops do not.
Thank you.
I'm not a "professional" mechanic, which has it's good and bad points. Good, I don't have to work in the heat, in the middle of summer unless I want to. Bad, friends and family call me when they can't afford to get work done, or it's after hours. Either which way, unless I don't have the facilities to do the repair, they're back and running.
Of the last few repairs that I can think of, off hand, these were the hints from the computer, and the real resolution.
Cause: Failed starter. R&R by flashlight in the middle of the night.
2) ODBII Code: [nothing]
Symptom: Car randomly stalls at or near idle.
Vehicle: 1/2 ton late model Dodge
Cause: TPS failed. R&R. IAC dirty, cleaned.
3) ODBII Cause: P1351 - IC output high pulse detected when grounded cylinder 1
Symptom: None, vehicle drives fine. Noted hard start sometimes.
Vehicle: 1/2 ton Chevy Suburban
Cause: Ignition Control Module failing. R&R
4) OBDII Cause: P0420 - Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold (Bank 1)
Symptom: None. Intermittent rattle heard near left cat.
Vehicle: 4th Gen F-body.
Cause: Failing left cat. Under extended warranty. Let dealer replace.
For anyone just reading the codes, they're screwed on 1&2. On 3, the factory checklist has the control model pretty far down the list. On #4, that's a known problem. But it could have been either O2 sensor on that side also.
Case #1, I arrived just shortly the parts store closed, so I shorted the solenoid to verify the fault before sending the owner off in my car to buy a starter.
Case #2 had gone through 4 different shops. Each one charged for their diagnostics. Some denied the fault even existed. Some charged for unrelated repairs. He didn't know I fixed cars, but found out and asked if I was willing to chase the ghost out of his truck. I diagnosed it in about 10 minutes, and came back the next morning to fix it. Since it was an intermittent fault, he held payment (with my agreement) for a week. It never came back, so he was happy.
Cars come to me all the time with "funny noises" or "funny smells" or "just doesn't seem to drive right." Having a code is nice. Sometime it's just an unavailable luxury. I just hate people asking for an over-the-phone diagnosis. I just started telling them "It sounds like it might explode. Don't bring it to me.":) They learn after you tell them that a few times.
I just wish I could charge shop rates to friends and family who I know don't have any money.
Sorry about that. Most people don't do their own work, so I assumed what others very likely did. I should have realized that. I get the same thing a lot. I haven't done my own clutch or transmission for a while though, usually because of either time or tool constraints.
Ya, 10x the amount is an awful lot to pay for a regular maintenance, even if it is every 100k miles or so.
$3,500 is about average for a transmission built with R&R. If you're doing the labor, it may cost less.
Some transmissions cost significantly more. Total for my ex's Honda CR-V was $4,800. That wasn't just us getting ripped off. I had several mechanics trying to source one for cheaper or even a used one, so they could get the job instead. That particular transmission only showed up in a single model year, and only on the Honda CR-V. As always, the less common the parts, the more they cost.
Actually, those were suppose to be separate statements. Sorry.:)
A lot of cars (regardless of their transmission) couldn't navigate the hill due to lack of power.
4wd vehicles usually have an advantage of a 4L gear (4 wheel output, lower gear ratio).
Of vehicles of equal rear wheel horsepower (including overall gear ratio), they are equally drivable, if the driver of each knows how to operate his vehicle.
A slipping torque converter can be a significant cause of transmission overheating, so although it may seem like a momentary advantage, it's a long term (and expensive) disadvantage.
Actually, the two transmissions I was referencing were for the 2000 TransAm.
The automatic is a 4L60E. It's shipping weight with torque converter is 176 lb
The manual is a Tremec T56. It's shipping weight is 75 pounds.
The remainder of the additional weight is a matter of the difference in equipment required for the different transmissions. The manuals get a rather light shifter bolted to the top. The automatics get a floor mount shifter and linkages. The manual does not require any additional cooling, other than the few quarts of gear oil. The automatic requires quite a bit more fluid, piping and exterior cooling. etc, etc, etc.
I didn't know there was a difference until I registered my second one. One was an automatic, and one was a stick. My state taxes (yearly registration) based on the weight of the vehicle. I then took both vehicles as it would have been delivered from the factory, both with full fuel tanks, and yup, there was a 300 pound difference.
I've only met a few other people over the years who went as far as to publish their own newspaper. On that, I'll say "congratulations".
I did all my work on it outside of school. I just handed out a stack to the first person and told them to pass it on. It didn't take very long before everyone in the school had read it and I heard them discussing it. At first, I didn't admit to printing it, which left people open to talk to me about it. In a small school (just a couple thousand students) it didn't take too long for someone to point the finger back to me. That was something I recognized as a possibility from the start.
I was talking to someone recently, and we both agreed that commercial media is censored. They either do it themselves to avoid trouble, or with unofficial encouraging words. But hell, they can't even talk bad about their advertisers without endangering their revenue. Legitimate news stories will get canned because they are afraid of offending the advertisers. So that leaves it up to small publications who can't even attract major advertisers. If you went to a major company and said "We have a readership of 10,000 daily, will you advertise with us?", they'd laugh at you before kicking you out. Of course, even without the restrictions of not wanting to offend advertisers, they can still come down on you for printing something less than favorable about them.
It's not impossible. I drove up to San Francisco once when we spent a few days there. I drove all over the place with no problems. Looking around online, the steepest roads are one-way downhill.
The worst have been private roads and driveways. I was invited to someone's house, and they asked what I was driving. Then they asked if it was a stick. Apparently a lot of cars simply don't have the power to make it up, and manual drivers can't do it if they're used to flat land or relatively tame hills. Everyone on that road drove 4wd SUV's. Moving vans have to park at the end of the road and the workers have to carry everything up by hand. Fire/rescue can't get there, so if there's a fire, they have to carry hoses from their truck up. That was a bit late for a neighboring house once. Really, that just sounds like a bad place to live (it was in the middle of an area very prone to earthquakes, mudslides, and wildfires).
If you look at the extreme 4x4 driving, where they'll do rock climbing, lots of them have manual transmissions. All an inclined road does is incur extra load, with the ability to roll backwards. Some places people are taught to use the handbrake to keep the car from rolling until they start building enough power to move uphill. I only do this if I'm pulling my car onto ramps, and I stop too early. It's a perfectly valid technique.
Automatic transmissions weren't available for a long time, and then were a luxury option for years. I know I'm talking about times before most of the readers here were born, but it's still true. Just because *you* can't drive a stick in harsh environments doesn't mean that your parents, grandparents, or more generations back, didn't. A lot of it is up to training and skill, which seems to fall short more often these days as we're softened with the modern luxuries.
They may be aware that cars are being stolen to chop up, rather than being put back into use. Of course, that's not always the case, but it may be a while before you see it again.
I've heard of stolen cars being found, sometimes the same night they were stolen, stripped clean of any valuable parts, or sometimes of everything but the frame.
I knew someone in Los Angeles who had her SUV stolen. It was found two months later, being used to smuggle illegal aliens up from Mexico. Border patrol checked their records, and it had come across twice a day for almost the entire time. When she got it back, it had cheap steel wheels on it, rather than the factory alloy wheels, anything valuable (radio, etc) had been removed, etc, etc.
With all that said, good luck, I hope you get your car back in the same condition it was when it disappeared.
My car as 110,000 miles on it. I've raced my car a good bit (legal track racing, of course).
The first clutch (stock) I destroyed was by adding a 150hp NOS system on.
The second clutch (performance) was destroyed by my ex-wife driving it uphill and she slipped the clutch the whole way (like 5 miles). She obviously wasn't very good with a stick.
The third clutch (performance) was actually from old age.
My friend has a comparable car. It's the same engine, transmission, body style and weight. She drives more normally than I do (no racing, just city/highway driving). She had her clutch changed at 100k miles. Labor to replace the clutch is about $350 to $500. Parts are about $150. This car happens to be a bastard to work on, which is why the labor is high. So, $500 to $650 for the job.
This is about the age that an automatic transmission would need to be rebuilt. For this car equipped with an automatic, removal, rebuild, and replace costs about $3,500.
So, with my car, I've improved the efficiency by helping the airflow out (one minor exhaust fix, and a some intake fixing). I enjoy cruising at highway speeds with low RPM's (6 speed). The same car with an automatic would be cruising at a much higher RPM (4 speed), and suffering from losses related to the automatic transmission.
I rarely need to check my transmission fluid (i.e., gear oil). If my gear oil runs low, it could increase wear. A car with an automatic has to have their transmission filter and fluid changed. If their fluid runs low, it can be catastrophic.
There's about a 300 pound difference between the manual 6 speed and the automatic 4 speed.
So, lighter, better fuel economy, and less repair costs. I really don't see why people wouldn't want to drive a stick. The excuse "I don't know how" isn't a valid excuse, except they're too lazy to learn.
I can drive pretty much anything with wheels, and I've proven it. I'm licensed for motorcycles and cars. I've also driven everything including a big truck with a 10 speed air shifter. a neighbor bought a motorcycle, but didn't really know how to drive it. They told me it wasn't driving right, so I grabbed my helmet from the garage (I don't have a bike right now, but I still have the helmet), and took it for a spin. It worked fine. It was operator failure.
Almost anything that can be disclaimed with "this is a forward looking statement" is a scam.
He has the new whiz-bang transmission that will revolutionize anything with a spinning shaft.
Really, I see some flaws in it that others have pointed out. But people will still get their "great idea" prototypes on the news somewhere regardless of their merit.
Exhausts got louder, as they've increased the pipes to reduce airflow restriction. Obviously "economy" cars don't get this (and usually don't need it). The coffee can exhaust is not a performance modification, it's a noise maker. Larger displacement engines do very well with reduced exhaust restrictions, which has shown up on late model muscle cars.
Animal print interiors... well, I doubt that'll happen, but it could. More customized interiors with added colors have shown up in production vehicles. This may not be in the price range of the average Slashdot user, but the 2006 Lamborghini Murcielago Alpine Edition that could give you a headache (or burn your eyes out). Most manufacturers have stuck with one or two colors. Factory vehicles have definitely been upgraded with finer leather interiors, real wood, carbon fiber, or brushed aluminum dash inlays. This was pretty much unheard of 30 years ago.
Louder stereos are almost standard equipment now, compared to the earlier ones that had one speaker in the middle of the dash or possibly two. My '00 car has a 8 speaker system built in, which only gets turned up to 25% on the highway at 85mph with the windows down. My moms late model "grandmother" style car has a factory sound system that is far superior to anything built in the 80's or earlier. Some cars come with somewhat serious subwoofers that'll rattle the windows of other cars at a stop light. In some areas, that's follow up by gunfire which sometimes resolves the problem.
Fluorescent paint job really depends on the beholder. The factory colors change on a fairly regular basis. Is the Hemi Orange too bright for you? How about the Ford Mystic? How about Honda Helios Yellow Pearl? They're all a long way from Henry Fords available colors, or as he said, "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black"
So, compare a 1980's car to a 2010 car, and you'll see how things have changed. Expect similar changes to continue. People don't like to trade in their old car unless they're getting something "better" which is frequently more "bling" and less performance.
Nope, it was company property, and stayed with them when I left. Sorry. I'm a believer in intellectual property, so when I leave a company, anything I did for them is theirs.
You're so right. On anything, when you trust others to manage your resources, you have to trust them.
I just helped someone move their domain. Something happened (long story), and they couldn't do anything with it. They didn't have a web page, but they did have lots of email going through there. It took a while to get it released to my control, but it finally got done.
I prefer not to trust anyone else with things I can do myself. That includes hosting, money, and fixing my car (I had to throw that in).
If your intention is serious damage, that's not the best idea. That's why people intent on inflicting damage simply wire the vibrate motor of a cell phone to an electronic detonator. Nothing says lovin' like blowing the car 30 feet into the air.
Actually, that's frequently done for lower class circle track racing. You simply crimp the right side brakes, and no, you don't leave the vice grips on. Once the steel lines are crimped, they stay that way.
Circle track drivers adjust their cars significantly to turn left. They use larger tires on the right side, lower the suspension on the left, and significantly adjust the alignment. Everything is done so it handles better on left hand turns. It's funny watching them drive through the pits, trying to drive in a straight line. They don't do that very well at all.:)
When racing, the front and rear straightaways aren't taken straight, they're taken as a long curve so they are way outside and dive in to the apex and then back out. When you tap the brakes for the turns, you want it to pull left.
That'd be a cooler trick. The connector is usually under the dash on the drivers side.:)
Actually, hooking a code reader to the diagnostic port is fairly standard, and no one questions it. I happen to have a standalone code reader, and any time someone says that their SES light is on, I plug it in and tell them the code. I spent $100 on it and have used it quite a bit. It's better than paying a shop $100 every time to read it for me, and then getting raped even worse on parts and labor.
No one ever questions what I'm doing when I plug the diagnostic tool in. I could be reprogramming the computer, except folks I do work for know that I wouldn't do that to them without permission. Well, that and I don't have a programmer.:)
Everyone says "cut the brakes", but that's too easy, and detectable.
A pound of C4 in the gas tank, with a remote detonator would cause more damage, and it would be completely undetectable. Of course, the time required to slide a boxcutter across the brake line is significantly less than it would take to remove and reinstall the fuel pump (the only place to access the inside of the fuel tank).
It's not actually necessary to cut a brake line. You can just loosen the bleeder and it will have the same effect.
I had this effectively happen on my car, but with the clutch. I had the clutch master go, so I replaced it and had to bleed the whole system. Apparently at 11pm by flashlight, I didn't tighten the bleeder as tight as it should have been. 4 months later, while I was driving to a friends place the clutch became squishy. When I turned around to go home, I made it about a mile before the clutch had failed completely. It's not always fun to bleed the clutch in an parts store parking lot, but it can be done.:)
A cut brake line is pretty obvious, when the brakes don't work right. That can usually be felt before the car is ever put into drive. The front and rear brakes are usually segregated, so cutting just say the front lines will still allow the vehicle to stop. The emergency/hand brake is usually a physical connection, as opposed to the hydraulic brake system for the normal driving brakes. To disable a vehicle from stopping, you'd have to damage all three systems.
I once fixed a car for someone, who's brakes didn't work "quite right". It turned out the car was flood damaged before they bought it. By the time they brought it to me, three of the brake calipers were frozen and wouldn't engage the brakes at all. The fourth was working, but the pads had worn out since they were the only thing stopping the car. The full repair was replacing all three calipers, pads on all four wheels, flushing the brake system, and 6 wheel lugs (they were rusted in place and broke when I was taking it apart). Their response was "oh, it stops better now."
Most of the viable damage you can do to a car from under it will render it nonoperational, rather than dangerous.
Having the source code to the computer really isn't necessary. Without a selective trigger, the odds of malicious code doing damage to the correct target are very slim. VIP vehicles do a lot of driving, frequently without the VIP inside.
The ABS system detects a wheel lock situation. It will release the brakes on the stopped wheel momentarily. If you were to override this behavior, you could stick all the wheels into the released position, therefor making them not work.
Normally the ABS system is failsafe. If it fails, your brakes work as normal hydraulic brakes, without the benefit of automatically actuating the brakes to eliminate a slide.
The opposite would seem to be harder to do. Except for a handful of cars that can actuate the brakes to avoid a skid, I don't believe they have any mechanism (other than the fleshy one in the drivers seat) that can apply pressure to the brake pedal.
In reading over the PDF on their site, their vehicle was capable of electronically applying the brakes to individual wheels, "sets" of wheels (I'll assume front or rear), or all wheels.
I've only done work with OBD-II, not CAN, and the interface devices I've used were exclusively read-only, so I never had an opportunity to play with this kind of manipulation. I did intend on putting a computer in my car to do various things. Most of them would be telemetry, which is fine for the read-only interface. I would have liked to set valet mode, where I wouldn't allow the engine over 2000 RPM or 25mph (which ever is lowest).
And no, I didn't really make it past the second paragraph. You didn't look like you were going anywhere, and the journey looked dull.
That's fair enough.:) At least you got to the second paragraph and decided that for yourself.
Most of the tl;dr crowd don't even read the entire subject. I guess they're the same ones that read the title of stories on here, and then post something stupid without even reading the summary, and of course not the linked articles.
When I'm hunting for solutions online, I frequently don't get past the first few paragraphs, because it's obvious that I'm only getting an elementary overview without the answer I'm seeking. I usually skim the rest to see if my guess is wrong, but it usually isn't. By the time I have to go looking for further information, it means I'm looking for more advanced help than 99% of the answers out there.
So you are one of those damned sushi eating communists, aren't you?:)
On the money, the banks have other rules that can be nasty.
On the Friday before Christmas one year, Wells Fargo decided that there was fraudulent activity on my account. All I had done was deposit my paycheck that cleared fine, and written bills from it. I had bought a plane ticket home, and reserved a rental car there. When I went Friday to deposit my last paycheck before I left, the ATM seized my card. They were nice enough to inform me that my account was frozen due to fraud. Two hours later and a lot of screaming (I was polite at first, but that didn't last beyond the first half hour), they agreed to give me some of my money in cash, but the account itself was still frozen. Every bill check that I sent out bounced. My plane ticket was cancelled (by them). A friend of mine covered my expenses for the trip, and it wasn't until about two weeks later that I finally got it straightened out. Over the following month I got all my bills straightened out by paying them from a new bank account at another bank.
You're guaranteed your money, but it isn't always immediate access. Sometimes it is easier to keep your money under your mattress. I keep enough cash handy to survive for a week or so, just in case it happens again.
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I'm not sure you can argue that comfort foods (foods that are consumed for pleasure, rather than nutritional needs) are constitutionally protected, but I'm sure not going to be one to argue it.
The quote that you're partially referencing is from the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. While it is a very important document in US history, and definitely tied to the basis of our laws, it is not legally binding for anything other than to say that we are (or at the time were) declaring our separation from the English rule. It is very important in that it does indicate our founding fathers belief that these were unalienable rights, which by virtue of the fact of who it was written by and why, would apply throughout our legal system.
The document, noting the second statement I highlighted, would be considered treasonous. Since it was a statement indicating we were taking the colonies to be an independent nation, it was.
Oddly enough, today if you were to have a significant group of Americans, and presented such a document to the government of the United States of America, you would find yourself in prison. To present such a document in the given form would mean that you represented the people of the territory that you are claiming independence for though. A nutjob group several thousand strong, while could cause significant damage, would not represent the people as a whole. This is where such action will never happen today. People have become apathetic, and are easily influenced by what they perceive as leadership groups (their political party, religious organization, or even their preferred news television/paper/website). You would never gain a consensus of the people, because they are too easily divided and confused by disinformation through those outlets.
So, telling them to go suck one is just you. Is it your inalienable right? Sure. Will you win in such a dispute against even local government? Not very likely. But with the good old question "... you and what army?", if the group backing you is large enough, you would indeed win.
[soapbox mode off]
I know it's possible to mistake what gear you're in. It's usually an unfamiliarity with the vehicle. In my car, it's easy for someone who's unfamiliar with it to do that, or put it in the wrong gear. I replaced the stock shifter with a "short stick". It's only a couple inches lower, but doesn't require me to move as far to shift the gears. That was partly for performance, and partly because I'm lazy. :)
I've seen people who forgot that they shifted an automatic, and done it again. It's not so bad in reverse, if you only make the mistake once. One click to reverse. The second one goes to neutral, so they just don't move. I've also seen the same mistake in drive. 3 clicks to drive (4th/OD). 3 more to 1st. Then they get all confused about why it'll only do 20mph.
I'm sure you've heard people start their car twice too. You know, that unpleasant sound where the driver turns the key again after it's started, and the starter gear jams into the flywheel rather than engaging it (since it's spinning).
People do stupid things, because they aren't paying attention, or don't really know what they're doing.
I've never seen a study on what people drive, I only know from my observations. Probably now that we're discussing it, someone will base a thesis on it. :)
Thank you.
I'm not a "professional" mechanic, which has it's good and bad points. Good, I don't have to work in the heat, in the middle of summer unless I want to. Bad, friends and family call me when they can't afford to get work done, or it's after hours. Either which way, unless I don't have the facilities to do the repair, they're back and running.
Of the last few repairs that I can think of, off hand, these were the hints from the computer, and the real resolution.
1) ODBII Code: [nothing]
Symptom: Car won't start.
Vehicle: Infinity i60t
Cause: Failed starter. R&R by flashlight in the middle of the night.
2) ODBII Code: [nothing]
Symptom: Car randomly stalls at or near idle.
Vehicle: 1/2 ton late model Dodge
Cause: TPS failed. R&R. IAC dirty, cleaned.
3) ODBII Cause: P1351 - IC output high pulse detected when grounded cylinder 1
Symptom: None, vehicle drives fine. Noted hard start sometimes.
Vehicle: 1/2 ton Chevy Suburban
Cause: Ignition Control Module failing. R&R
4) OBDII Cause: P0420 - Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold (Bank 1)
Symptom: None. Intermittent rattle heard near left cat.
Vehicle: 4th Gen F-body.
Cause: Failing left cat. Under extended warranty. Let dealer replace.
For anyone just reading the codes, they're screwed on 1&2. On 3, the factory checklist has the control model pretty far down the list. On #4, that's a known problem. But it could have been either O2 sensor on that side also.
Case #1, I arrived just shortly the parts store closed, so I shorted the solenoid to verify the fault before sending the owner off in my car to buy a starter.
Case #2 had gone through 4 different shops. Each one charged for their diagnostics. Some denied the fault even existed. Some charged for unrelated repairs. He didn't know I fixed cars, but found out and asked if I was willing to chase the ghost out of his truck. I diagnosed it in about 10 minutes, and came back the next morning to fix it. Since it was an intermittent fault, he held payment (with my agreement) for a week. It never came back, so he was happy.
Cars come to me all the time with "funny noises" or "funny smells" or "just doesn't seem to drive right." Having a code is nice. Sometime it's just an unavailable luxury. I just hate people asking for an over-the-phone diagnosis. I just started telling them "It sounds like it might explode. Don't bring it to me." :) They learn after you tell them that a few times.
I just wish I could charge shop rates to friends and family who I know don't have any money.
Sorry about that. Most people don't do their own work, so I assumed what others very likely did. I should have realized that. I get the same thing a lot. I haven't done my own clutch or transmission for a while though, usually because of either time or tool constraints.
Ya, 10x the amount is an awful lot to pay for a regular maintenance, even if it is every 100k miles or so.
$3,500 is about average for a transmission built with R&R. If you're doing the labor, it may cost less.
Some transmissions cost significantly more. Total for my ex's Honda CR-V was $4,800. That wasn't just us getting ripped off. I had several mechanics trying to source one for cheaper or even a used one, so they could get the job instead. That particular transmission only showed up in a single model year, and only on the Honda CR-V. As always, the less common the parts, the more they cost.
Actually, those were suppose to be separate statements. Sorry. :)
A lot of cars (regardless of their transmission) couldn't navigate the hill due to lack of power.
4wd vehicles usually have an advantage of a 4L gear (4 wheel output, lower gear ratio).
Of vehicles of equal rear wheel horsepower (including overall gear ratio), they are equally drivable, if the driver of each knows how to operate his vehicle.
A slipping torque converter can be a significant cause of transmission overheating, so although it may seem like a momentary advantage, it's a long term (and expensive) disadvantage.
Actually, the two transmissions I was referencing were for the 2000 TransAm.
The automatic is a 4L60E. It's shipping weight with torque converter is 176 lb
The manual is a Tremec T56. It's shipping weight is 75 pounds.
The remainder of the additional weight is a matter of the difference in equipment required for the different transmissions. The manuals get a rather light shifter bolted to the top. The automatics get a floor mount shifter and linkages. The manual does not require any additional cooling, other than the few quarts of gear oil. The automatic requires quite a bit more fluid, piping and exterior cooling. etc, etc, etc.
I didn't know there was a difference until I registered my second one. One was an automatic, and one was a stick. My state taxes (yearly registration) based on the weight of the vehicle. I then took both vehicles as it would have been delivered from the factory, both with full fuel tanks, and yup, there was a 300 pound difference.
I've only met a few other people over the years who went as far as to publish their own newspaper. On that, I'll say "congratulations".
I did all my work on it outside of school. I just handed out a stack to the first person and told them to pass it on. It didn't take very long before everyone in the school had read it and I heard them discussing it. At first, I didn't admit to printing it, which left people open to talk to me about it. In a small school (just a couple thousand students) it didn't take too long for someone to point the finger back to me. That was something I recognized as a possibility from the start.
I was talking to someone recently, and we both agreed that commercial media is censored. They either do it themselves to avoid trouble, or with unofficial encouraging words. But hell, they can't even talk bad about their advertisers without endangering their revenue. Legitimate news stories will get canned because they are afraid of offending the advertisers. So that leaves it up to small publications who can't even attract major advertisers. If you went to a major company and said "We have a readership of 10,000 daily, will you advertise with us?", they'd laugh at you before kicking you out. Of course, even without the restrictions of not wanting to offend advertisers, they can still come down on you for printing something less than favorable about them.
It's not impossible. I drove up to San Francisco once when we spent a few days there. I drove all over the place with no problems. Looking around online, the steepest roads are one-way downhill.
The worst have been private roads and driveways. I was invited to someone's house, and they asked what I was driving. Then they asked if it was a stick. Apparently a lot of cars simply don't have the power to make it up, and manual drivers can't do it if they're used to flat land or relatively tame hills. Everyone on that road drove 4wd SUV's. Moving vans have to park at the end of the road and the workers have to carry everything up by hand. Fire/rescue can't get there, so if there's a fire, they have to carry hoses from their truck up. That was a bit late for a neighboring house once. Really, that just sounds like a bad place to live (it was in the middle of an area very prone to earthquakes, mudslides, and wildfires).
If you look at the extreme 4x4 driving, where they'll do rock climbing, lots of them have manual transmissions. All an inclined road does is incur extra load, with the ability to roll backwards. Some places people are taught to use the handbrake to keep the car from rolling until they start building enough power to move uphill. I only do this if I'm pulling my car onto ramps, and I stop too early. It's a perfectly valid technique.
Automatic transmissions weren't available for a long time, and then were a luxury option for years. I know I'm talking about times before most of the readers here were born, but it's still true. Just because *you* can't drive a stick in harsh environments doesn't mean that your parents, grandparents, or more generations back, didn't. A lot of it is up to training and skill, which seems to fall short more often these days as we're softened with the modern luxuries.
They may be aware that cars are being stolen to chop up, rather than being put back into use. Of course, that's not always the case, but it may be a while before you see it again.
I've heard of stolen cars being found, sometimes the same night they were stolen, stripped clean of any valuable parts, or sometimes of everything but the frame.
I knew someone in Los Angeles who had her SUV stolen. It was found two months later, being used to smuggle illegal aliens up from Mexico. Border patrol checked their records, and it had come across twice a day for almost the entire time. When she got it back, it had cheap steel wheels on it, rather than the factory alloy wheels, anything valuable (radio, etc) had been removed, etc, etc.
With all that said, good luck, I hope you get your car back in the same condition it was when it disappeared.
I just sketched a venn diagram of that. You didn't show any relationship between the two circles.
Most of the people I've met who have mental illnesses either don't drive, or they drive automatics.
I hope this clarifies things.
Good point. Well, your numbers are a little off.
My car as 110,000 miles on it. I've raced my car a good bit (legal track racing, of course).
The first clutch (stock) I destroyed was by adding a 150hp NOS system on.
The second clutch (performance) was destroyed by my ex-wife driving it uphill and she slipped the clutch the whole way (like 5 miles). She obviously wasn't very good with a stick.
The third clutch (performance) was actually from old age.
My friend has a comparable car. It's the same engine, transmission, body style and weight. She drives more normally than I do (no racing, just city/highway driving). She had her clutch changed at 100k miles. Labor to replace the clutch is about $350 to $500. Parts are about $150. This car happens to be a bastard to work on, which is why the labor is high. So, $500 to $650 for the job.
This is about the age that an automatic transmission would need to be rebuilt. For this car equipped with an automatic, removal, rebuild, and replace costs about $3,500.
So, with my car, I've improved the efficiency by helping the airflow out (one minor exhaust fix, and a some intake fixing). I enjoy cruising at highway speeds with low RPM's (6 speed). The same car with an automatic would be cruising at a much higher RPM (4 speed), and suffering from losses related to the automatic transmission.
I rarely need to check my transmission fluid (i.e., gear oil). If my gear oil runs low, it could increase wear. A car with an automatic has to have their transmission filter and fluid changed. If their fluid runs low, it can be catastrophic.
There's about a 300 pound difference between the manual 6 speed and the automatic 4 speed.
So, lighter, better fuel economy, and less repair costs. I really don't see why people wouldn't want to drive a stick. The excuse "I don't know how" isn't a valid excuse, except they're too lazy to learn.
I can drive pretty much anything with wheels, and I've proven it. I'm licensed for motorcycles and cars. I've also driven everything including a big truck with a 10 speed air shifter. a neighbor bought a motorcycle, but didn't really know how to drive it. They told me it wasn't driving right, so I grabbed my helmet from the garage (I don't have a bike right now, but I still have the helmet), and took it for a spin. It worked fine. It was operator failure.
Almost anything that can be disclaimed with "this is a forward looking statement" is a scam.
He has the new whiz-bang transmission that will revolutionize anything with a spinning shaft.
Really, I see some flaws in it that others have pointed out. But people will still get their "great idea" prototypes on the news somewhere regardless of their merit.
My favorite in recent years was the Aquygen scam.
"I got a great idea. Give me money." very rarely means that there is a revolutionary idea behind it.
Hey now, there are some of us in North America who prefer to drive manual transmissions.
Well, if you look at the trends, you'll see it.
Exhausts got louder, as they've increased the pipes to reduce airflow restriction. Obviously "economy" cars don't get this (and usually don't need it). The coffee can exhaust is not a performance modification, it's a noise maker. Larger displacement engines do very well with reduced exhaust restrictions, which has shown up on late model muscle cars.
Animal print interiors ... well, I doubt that'll happen, but it could. More customized interiors with added colors have shown up in production vehicles. This may not be in the price range of the average Slashdot user, but the 2006 Lamborghini Murcielago Alpine Edition that could give you a headache (or burn your eyes out). Most manufacturers have stuck with one or two colors. Factory vehicles have definitely been upgraded with finer leather interiors, real wood, carbon fiber, or brushed aluminum dash inlays. This was pretty much unheard of 30 years ago.
Louder stereos are almost standard equipment now, compared to the earlier ones that had one speaker in the middle of the dash or possibly two. My '00 car has a 8 speaker system built in, which only gets turned up to 25% on the highway at 85mph with the windows down. My moms late model "grandmother" style car has a factory sound system that is far superior to anything built in the 80's or earlier. Some cars come with somewhat serious subwoofers that'll rattle the windows of other cars at a stop light. In some areas, that's follow up by gunfire which sometimes resolves the problem.
Fluorescent paint job really depends on the beholder. The factory colors change on a fairly regular basis. Is the Hemi Orange too bright for you? How about the Ford Mystic? How about Honda Helios Yellow Pearl? They're all a long way from Henry Fords available colors, or as he said, "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black"
So, compare a 1980's car to a 2010 car, and you'll see how things have changed. Expect similar changes to continue. People don't like to trade in their old car unless they're getting something "better" which is frequently more "bling" and less performance.
Nope, it was company property, and stayed with them when I left. Sorry. I'm a believer in intellectual property, so when I leave a company, anything I did for them is theirs.
You're so right. On anything, when you trust others to manage your resources, you have to trust them.
I just helped someone move their domain. Something happened (long story), and they couldn't do anything with it. They didn't have a web page, but they did have lots of email going through there. It took a while to get it released to my control, but it finally got done.
I prefer not to trust anyone else with things I can do myself. That includes hosting, money, and fixing my car (I had to throw that in).
If your intention is serious damage, that's not the best idea. That's why people intent on inflicting damage simply wire the vibrate motor of a cell phone to an electronic detonator. Nothing says lovin' like blowing the car 30 feet into the air.
Actually, that's frequently done for lower class circle track racing. You simply crimp the right side brakes, and no, you don't leave the vice grips on. Once the steel lines are crimped, they stay that way.
Circle track drivers adjust their cars significantly to turn left. They use larger tires on the right side, lower the suspension on the left, and significantly adjust the alignment. Everything is done so it handles better on left hand turns. It's funny watching them drive through the pits, trying to drive in a straight line. They don't do that very well at all. :)
When racing, the front and rear straightaways aren't taken straight, they're taken as a long curve so they are way outside and dive in to the apex and then back out. When you tap the brakes for the turns, you want it to pull left.
That'd be a cooler trick. The connector is usually under the dash on the drivers side. :)
Actually, hooking a code reader to the diagnostic port is fairly standard, and no one questions it. I happen to have a standalone code reader, and any time someone says that their SES light is on, I plug it in and tell them the code. I spent $100 on it and have used it quite a bit. It's better than paying a shop $100 every time to read it for me, and then getting raped even worse on parts and labor.
No one ever questions what I'm doing when I plug the diagnostic tool in. I could be reprogramming the computer, except folks I do work for know that I wouldn't do that to them without permission. Well, that and I don't have a programmer. :)
Good point.
Everyone says "cut the brakes", but that's too easy, and detectable.
A pound of C4 in the gas tank, with a remote detonator would cause more damage, and it would be completely undetectable. Of course, the time required to slide a boxcutter across the brake line is significantly less than it would take to remove and reinstall the fuel pump (the only place to access the inside of the fuel tank).
It's not actually necessary to cut a brake line. You can just loosen the bleeder and it will have the same effect.
I had this effectively happen on my car, but with the clutch. I had the clutch master go, so I replaced it and had to bleed the whole system. Apparently at 11pm by flashlight, I didn't tighten the bleeder as tight as it should have been. 4 months later, while I was driving to a friends place the clutch became squishy. When I turned around to go home, I made it about a mile before the clutch had failed completely. It's not always fun to bleed the clutch in an parts store parking lot, but it can be done. :)
A cut brake line is pretty obvious, when the brakes don't work right. That can usually be felt before the car is ever put into drive. The front and rear brakes are usually segregated, so cutting just say the front lines will still allow the vehicle to stop. The emergency/hand brake is usually a physical connection, as opposed to the hydraulic brake system for the normal driving brakes. To disable a vehicle from stopping, you'd have to damage all three systems.
I once fixed a car for someone, who's brakes didn't work "quite right". It turned out the car was flood damaged before they bought it. By the time they brought it to me, three of the brake calipers were frozen and wouldn't engage the brakes at all. The fourth was working, but the pads had worn out since they were the only thing stopping the car. The full repair was replacing all three calipers, pads on all four wheels, flushing the brake system, and 6 wheel lugs (they were rusted in place and broke when I was taking it apart). Their response was "oh, it stops better now."
Most of the viable damage you can do to a car from under it will render it nonoperational, rather than dangerous.
Having the source code to the computer really isn't necessary. Without a selective trigger, the odds of malicious code doing damage to the correct target are very slim. VIP vehicles do a lot of driving, frequently without the VIP inside.
That's a read-only interface. The only write capability it has is to send a request to clear existing trouble codes.
From what I gathered from the article, they were using a similar device to read engine information, but they were directly injecting data to the bus.
The ABS system detects a wheel lock situation. It will release the brakes on the stopped wheel momentarily. If you were to override this behavior, you could stick all the wheels into the released position, therefor making them not work.
Normally the ABS system is failsafe. If it fails, your brakes work as normal hydraulic brakes, without the benefit of automatically actuating the brakes to eliminate a slide.
The opposite would seem to be harder to do. Except for a handful of cars that can actuate the brakes to avoid a skid, I don't believe they have any mechanism (other than the fleshy one in the drivers seat) that can apply pressure to the brake pedal.
In reading over the PDF on their site, their vehicle was capable of electronically applying the brakes to individual wheels, "sets" of wheels (I'll assume front or rear), or all wheels.
I've only done work with OBD-II, not CAN, and the interface devices I've used were exclusively read-only, so I never had an opportunity to play with this kind of manipulation. I did intend on putting a computer in my car to do various things. Most of them would be telemetry, which is fine for the read-only interface. I would have liked to set valet mode, where I wouldn't allow the engine over 2000 RPM or 25mph (which ever is lowest).
That's fair enough. :) At least you got to the second paragraph and decided that for yourself.
Most of the tl;dr crowd don't even read the entire subject. I guess they're the same ones that read the title of stories on here, and then post something stupid without even reading the summary, and of course not the linked articles.
When I'm hunting for solutions online, I frequently don't get past the first few paragraphs, because it's obvious that I'm only getting an elementary overview without the answer I'm seeking. I usually skim the rest to see if my guess is wrong, but it usually isn't. By the time I have to go looking for further information, it means I'm looking for more advanced help than 99% of the answers out there.
So you are one of those damned sushi eating communists, aren't you? :)
On the money, the banks have other rules that can be nasty.
On the Friday before Christmas one year, Wells Fargo decided that there was fraudulent activity on my account. All I had done was deposit my paycheck that cleared fine, and written bills from it. I had bought a plane ticket home, and reserved a rental car there. When I went Friday to deposit my last paycheck before I left, the ATM seized my card. They were nice enough to inform me that my account was frozen due to fraud. Two hours later and a lot of screaming (I was polite at first, but that didn't last beyond the first half hour), they agreed to give me some of my money in cash, but the account itself was still frozen. Every bill check that I sent out bounced. My plane ticket was cancelled (by them). A friend of mine covered my expenses for the trip, and it wasn't until about two weeks later that I finally got it straightened out. Over the following month I got all my bills straightened out by paying them from a new bank account at another bank.
You're guaranteed your money, but it isn't always immediate access. Sometimes it is easier to keep your money under your mattress. I keep enough cash handy to survive for a week or so, just in case it happens again.