dandy_warhol
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Mr. Porsche was an SS officer and part of the Nazi party.
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Vehicles / bikes 🏍 Car Talk
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He designed a significant number of military vehicles for the nazis, including tanks, tank destroyers, and others.
Planit
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dandy_warhol
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I recently taught Itty Bitty about, "Punch Bug; no punch backs." She has enjoyed punching me.
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Planit
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Big Owl
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I took care of mine at lunch today so that it is disabled so that I don't have to turn it off each and every time.
WSU MUP Student
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I keep track of my mileage with every fill up of gasoline in my Jeep (as I have done with every tank of gas bought for my vehicles going back to February 2007) and when I first got it I was wondering about the utility of the auto start/stop so I'd drive for a few weeks with it enabled and a few weeks with it disabled. Nearly all of my driving is on suburban arterial roads or through dense downtown and residential neighborhoods with quite a bit of stopping for stoplights and stop signs. By my calculations, keeping the function enabled was giving me more than 1mpg in fuel economy (I cannot find the spreadsheet I used for the experiment and cannot recall the exact dates to re-run the numbers now); I believe the final figure was an extra 1.56mpg or 1.65mpg. Not a lot in the grand scheme of things but definitely not nothing. And it adds up, especially in a vehicle like mine where I struggle to get 17mpg from a tank if it's all city driving.
As for the auto start/stop wearing out the starter or alternator? I don't buy it. I've looked that up and seen no evidence of that being the case, though I didn't dive all that deep. The most stressful starts on a vehicle's starting system are starting up a cold engine - so the auto start/stop doesn't come into play in those situations where the vehicle has being parked for a while. Spinning the starter of a hot engine, that's been running for a while is much less stressful on the components than cranking from cold.
I keep the function turned on on my Jeep.
As for the auto start/stop wearing out the starter or alternator? I don't buy it. I've looked that up and seen no evidence of that being the case, though I didn't dive all that deep. The most stressful starts on a vehicle's starting system are starting up a cold engine - so the auto start/stop doesn't come into play in those situations where the vehicle has being parked for a while. Spinning the starter of a hot engine, that's been running for a while is much less stressful on the components than cranking from cold.
I keep the function turned on on my Jeep.
Doohickie
Cyburbian
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Pretty much describes my Fiat. It will be 10 years that I've had her in January.
fringe
Cyburbian
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Shade tree
In my earlier years I drove a ‘65 Chevy half-ton pickup three on the tree that I used for carpenter work. A ‘68 VW bus was my main ride.
One morning the pickup lost its reverse gear when I tried to back it out of the yard. With no way to go forward the truck was stuck.
Just as I stood scratching my head an older friend John stopped by on a “welfare check”, as I lived alone in a dumpy little rental on the edge of town, and he liked me.
He was handy enough with tools to help me jack up that truck, crawl underneath it, and drop the whole transmission. We pulled it out on a piece of cardboard. It was no bigger than a Boston butt or a typical Thanksgiving turkey.
He knew a guy on the other side of town who did mechanical work in his back yard in the shade of a big wide oak tree.
We dropped the tranny onto the bus back floor and drove unannounced to the mechanic’s house. His name was Will, but because of his physical size everyone knew him as “Chunk”.
John did the door knock and the request for help, and we pulled around Chunk’s house to the big shady yard.
Chunk needed solvent to wash parts, and he handed me a section of garden hose and a plastic milk jug. I siphoned about half the gallon from my bus tank, not including the mouthfuls I pulled to get the gas there.
While I sucked out the gas for cleaning Chunk took some strong pulls off the whiskey pint John kept in his jean jacket for emergency.
Chunk used very few tools to open that turkey, and after disassembly went rooting around in a tumbledown shed and came back with some big spiky gears he said we needed.
He slapped it all back together and declared it done. He demanded a ten-dollar fee (considering the whiskey) and I paid him gladly.
After the install the tranny worked great.
In my earlier years I drove a ‘65 Chevy half-ton pickup three on the tree that I used for carpenter work. A ‘68 VW bus was my main ride.
One morning the pickup lost its reverse gear when I tried to back it out of the yard. With no way to go forward the truck was stuck.
Just as I stood scratching my head an older friend John stopped by on a “welfare check”, as I lived alone in a dumpy little rental on the edge of town, and he liked me.
He was handy enough with tools to help me jack up that truck, crawl underneath it, and drop the whole transmission. We pulled it out on a piece of cardboard. It was no bigger than a Boston butt or a typical Thanksgiving turkey.
He knew a guy on the other side of town who did mechanical work in his back yard in the shade of a big wide oak tree.
We dropped the tranny onto the bus back floor and drove unannounced to the mechanic’s house. His name was Will, but because of his physical size everyone knew him as “Chunk”.
John did the door knock and the request for help, and we pulled around Chunk’s house to the big shady yard.
Chunk needed solvent to wash parts, and he handed me a section of garden hose and a plastic milk jug. I siphoned about half the gallon from my bus tank, not including the mouthfuls I pulled to get the gas there.
While I sucked out the gas for cleaning Chunk took some strong pulls off the whiskey pint John kept in his jean jacket for emergency.
Chunk used very few tools to open that turkey, and after disassembly went rooting around in a tumbledown shed and came back with some big spiky gears he said we needed.
He slapped it all back together and declared it done. He demanded a ten-dollar fee (considering the whiskey) and I paid him gladly.
After the install the tranny worked great.
RandomPlanner
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(This would be a better story if my dad were still around to fill in the huge blanks.)
My dad, a shade tree mechanic from the age of 12, was known for fixing cars on the side of the road when need be. After he passed, I got his small coin collection -- which included 3-4 pennies that we bent around in a half circle. I don't remember what had broken on multiple vehicles, but I know that the solution was to bend a penny and stick it in the slot/ cylinder -- which would make the vehicle drivable until it could be fixed properly.
(Not sure how he bent them on the side of the road; maybe he made a couple to have in his car -- just in case?)
My dad, a shade tree mechanic from the age of 12, was known for fixing cars on the side of the road when need be. After he passed, I got his small coin collection -- which included 3-4 pennies that we bent around in a half circle. I don't remember what had broken on multiple vehicles, but I know that the solution was to bend a penny and stick it in the slot/ cylinder -- which would make the vehicle drivable until it could be fixed properly.
(Not sure how he bent them on the side of the road; maybe he made a couple to have in his car -- just in case?)
RandomPlanner
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Funny, I don't know any other people that do this beyond my family -- I was taught to keep a notebook in the door of the car to keep track of fill ups, mileage, and any maintenance done on the vehicle. For years I complained to my dad that is was unnecessary but it is nice to be able to look back and say "well, I changed my distributor cap out on this date and after that I continually got 50 mpg on the highway*".
*true story
As for the start/stop increasing your mileage, I'm impressed. I'm not sure that I'll turn mine back on but I appreciate the information.
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I only kept track of mileage in my old beater Chevy Lumina. Once the gas gauge hit the half a tank mark it became wildly unpredictable. Thankfully I did mostly highway driving so it was not hard to estimate when I needed gas. That thing was ugly, cost $700, but it lasted me 4 years without having to put much in it.
WSU MUP Student
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I also keep track of my tire rotations and oil changes and any other maintenance. I never bothered getting my tires rotated on a regular basis until a couple vehicles ago when I bought one of my Jeeps and they gave me free oil changes for life. I felt like I should at least pay for something when I was in there so I'd always get my tires rotated too. A few years later I traded that Jeep in for another and lost my lifetime free oil changes so I went back to getting the tires rotated maybe every other or every third oil change. My current Jeep has free oil changes AND tire rotations.
Looking back through the data, I was surprised how much of a difference in fuel efficiency the tire rotations make, especially for those first two or three tanks of gas (after that the benefit seems to wane).
Beyond the maintenance and mileage, I really get a kick out of keeping track of where I purchase the gas. We use my wife's Traverse for most of our longer trips and my Jeep is usually just for local trips. It always surprises me how few gas stations I use. I've had my current Jeep since March 2022 and I've filled up 68 times but have only purchased gas from 8 different stations and have used the station around the corner from my house 37 of those 68 times.
Doohickie
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Probably universal fuse replacement. Folding the penny in half made it thick enough to fit into the clips at each end of the fuse (see row of fuses on the left)
DVD
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My daughter loves slug bug so much that in a couple years I must get her a bug to drive so she can cruise around town knowing she is the cause of violence.
for those counting my car is 22 years old. I just replaced the A/C system and of course two days later the clutch decided it needs replacing too. Other than that the car is running great.
DVD
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$2142 to totally redo the clutch. I also found out I have a TR-3650 transmission instead of the usual T-45. Nice to know. Part of me wanted to ask for the upgraded 26 spline clutch, but I just don't want to pay the hundreds extra just for that. I think I've replaced most of the major systems in that car now. I think it should last for a while now.
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SlaveToTheGrind
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Not a "car" but my oldest and I (co-signer) brought home a 2014 Polaris RZR 1000 4-seater yesterday.
DVD
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From my quick at work not supposed to be doing this reading it looks like the 3650 is late 2001, but only in the Bullitt and Cobra. not sure if it included the GT or base model.
It also looks like the gears are just slightly better and you get more torque.
Nice! My friend and I occasionally take a "lunch break" to go romping through the desert to get to our favorite sports bar. He has some upgraded suspension that makes driving even more fun.
WSU MUP Student
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My brother has a 4-seater RZR that he bought during the pandemic. He's equipped his with turn signals, larger fenders and a few other things to make it a bit more "road friendly". He lives out in the middle of nowhere and has turned it into his "getting around town" vehicle (in his town of less than 1,000 people). He's used it a couple times to come visit us at the beach about 20 miles from his house and even driven it the ~40 miles down to my parents house a few times. Usually there will be at least a couple other similar RZRs in the grocery store parking lot up near his place.
My kids absolutely love it and any time we go to his place all they talk about on the way up is whether or not Uncle Andy will take him out on the RZR.
When I first saw it, I thought to myself, "Well, that was a dumb purchase!" but man do I sort of want one after riding in it!
Though I think if I were going to buy something like that, I'd rather have the Mahindra Roxor but I've herd those take a lot more aftermarket work to make them street legal in most instances.
SlaveToTheGrind
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Street-legal UHVs are common around here.My brother has a 4-seater RZR that he bought during the pandemic. He's equipped his with turn signals, larger fenders and a few other things to make it a bit more "road friendly". He lives out in the middle of nowhere and has turned it into his "getting around town" vehicle (in his town of less than 1,000 people). He's used it a couple times to come visit us at the beach about 20 miles from his house and even driven it the ~40 miles down to my parents house a few times. Usually there will be at least a couple other similar RZRs in the grocery store parking lot up near his place.
My kids absolutely love it and any time we go to his place all they talk about on the way up is whether or not Uncle Andy will take him out on the RZR.
When I first saw it, I thought to myself, "Well, that was a dumb purchase!" but man do I sort of want one after riding in it!
Planit
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We have a lot of street legal golf carts around here, but I've also seen a few of the UHVs too.
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So...Spring and Summer are done and we are in the midst of the perfect weather part of early Fall in our part of the country.
Did you get this Rabbit out into the wild and enjoy the beautiful top-down life?
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WSU MUP Student
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I've taken the doors and roof completely off my Jeep once this year and drove it about 20 miles on that trip.
DVD
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My jeep never had doors on it or the soft top. They just sat in the garage. I did have the bikini top on it, but that's more for some shade than anything else. If I drove my wife's convertible for some reason the first thing I did was drop the top. As long as it's not raining, what's the problem.
estromberg
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We had it out a couple of times. The last time it got too hot. I have a new thermostat for it, but haven't made time to do the work. This summer has just flown by.
WSU MUP Student
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I'm top-down all the time when I'm in the mustang. The only exceptions are sometimes on the Interstate in heavy traffic, mainly because of the noise of semis, or if I'm going to a client meeting that requires my hair to look reasonably kept.
My first car was a MGA. I drove it with the top down even in the rain--as long as you were above about 45mph, the rain would blow over the windshield. The soft top was useless as two shits anyway with the janky side curtains. Got hit in the head with a hailstone once, which wasn't great.
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Big Owl
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I test drove a f150 with the 3.5L. It was peppy. I was able to easily spin a tire on dry pavement. It would be extremely fun in a vehicle half the weight.
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Planit
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Can't hide money.
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The Terminator
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I still really want a Plymouth Acclaim somehow, even though I know they're low-end Mopar junk from the post-Iacocca era and it's not a really great idea to use one as an "appliance car".
The 2.5 4 cylinder equipped Acclaim isn't terrible, although its no Volvo Redblock or Honda D block. I believe the base model 4cyl 89-95 Acclaim would have come with a 3 speed auto and a 2.5. A three speed! To my knowledge while a 5 speed manual was optional on the Acclaim/Dodge Spirit, virtually none were ordered and the only known manual swap setups (that are "direct fit" so to say, not crazy customfab sh*t where anything is possible) come from the Dodge Spirit R/T, itself an obscure 91-92 only performance version of the Acclaim's Dodge cousin. Meaning, you're not gonna manual swap an Acclaim without deep deep pockets.
Most Acclaims in 2023 have been long crushed. Some survive as regular cars in the non salt States and British Columbia's Lower Mainland. But here in the Northeast, their numbers are scant enough that I get excited when I see one!
These things were as common as dirt in the latter 1990s, when they had reached semi-hoopdi status already. My Father's good friend had a '90 Acclaim that was brown on red interior (eeek) and he kept on the road until 2001. One of my school friends, John P., would get picked up in a really steazy low mileage green on grey interior '95 Acclaim when we were in Day Camp together summers of 1997 and 1998. I later jammed frequently with John in High School (he played bass) but the Acclaim been traded for a '98 Corolla that got handed down, and he would drive me around in when we were yutes up to no good. 90s Corolla's are objectively better cars than 90s Acclaims. But I still want an f'in acclaim! I must be crazy.
The 2.5 4 cylinder equipped Acclaim isn't terrible, although its no Volvo Redblock or Honda D block. I believe the base model 4cyl 89-95 Acclaim would have come with a 3 speed auto and a 2.5. A three speed! To my knowledge while a 5 speed manual was optional on the Acclaim/Dodge Spirit, virtually none were ordered and the only known manual swap setups (that are "direct fit" so to say, not crazy customfab sh*t where anything is possible) come from the Dodge Spirit R/T, itself an obscure 91-92 only performance version of the Acclaim's Dodge cousin. Meaning, you're not gonna manual swap an Acclaim without deep deep pockets.
Most Acclaims in 2023 have been long crushed. Some survive as regular cars in the non salt States and British Columbia's Lower Mainland. But here in the Northeast, their numbers are scant enough that I get excited when I see one!
These things were as common as dirt in the latter 1990s, when they had reached semi-hoopdi status already. My Father's good friend had a '90 Acclaim that was brown on red interior (eeek) and he kept on the road until 2001. One of my school friends, John P., would get picked up in a really steazy low mileage green on grey interior '95 Acclaim when we were in Day Camp together summers of 1997 and 1998. I later jammed frequently with John in High School (he played bass) but the Acclaim been traded for a '98 Corolla that got handed down, and he would drive me around in when we were yutes up to no good. 90s Corolla's are objectively better cars than 90s Acclaims. But I still want an f'in acclaim! I must be crazy.
estromberg
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I had a Dodge Spirit with the 3.0L V6. The transmissions in these cars were complete trash and prone to failure, which is what happened to mine.