Category: automotive

New Tires!

Published September 3, 2010

I’ve been noticing some odd vibration from the rear of my car lately, and on Wednesday it was noted that my rear tire was starting to look a bit low. Today was a good day to take my car into the shop, and it was found that my rear driver’s side tire was super-worn on the inside edge, with intermittent vibration wear, and had a nail in it. With 54,134 on the set of tires they’d also lived their life, so I didn’t mind getting new ones.

My car rides much better now, doesn’t have an odd vibration from 69MPH – 74MPH, and it should be much nicer to go into winter with fresh tread to drive on. I do think I need to rotate my tires a bit more this time around, though.

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Working Car!

Published June 8, 2010

This broken bolt is the reason for Sunday’s car failure. When it broke the serpentine belt tensioner came free, likely becoming lodged somewhere, and causing the car to cease working. Because the bolt broke off flush with the engine block and was in a particularly hard to reach place, the engine had to be lowered 2″, the bolt drilled, and then the bolt removed with an easy out / screw extractor.

As a result there was $187.54 in labor to fix the problem, with the bolt, new serpentine belt, and other misc parts only being $78.01. With the $100 for towing, this failure cost just under $400, which I guess isn’t too bad. It’s a bit frustrating that this comes only two weeks after paying my car off (early), but timing on this is really very random.

The guy at the shop (Shelby Tire) said they spent a while trying to figure out the cause of the broken bolt, but the AC compressor, power steering pump, and all other devices connected to the serpentine belt seemed fine, including the tensioner. The only cause he could figure was that the bolt was weak (or failing) and the AC kicked on just as the power steering kicked in, and the extra load on the belt snapped things. As I was turning a corner out of a parking lot having just turned the AC on when the problem happened, this makes sense. Hopefully it won’t happen again.

(This is also the first RAW photo that I’ve processed in the newly released / installed Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3. One of its new features is markedly improved sharpening, and I must agree that it’s much better. After all, just check out those knurls on the screw head.)

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Failed Car!

Published June 6, 2010

Danielle and I took Roxie over to the Orion Oaks Dog Park today, where she got a bunch of exercise and lots of time to play in the lake, which was making for a very nice day. However, right as we pulled out of the lot, something went weird with my car and the engine came under lots of load, nearly stalling. I quickly made a U-turn, pulled back into the parking lot, and rolled into a space just as my car stalled.

A quick investigation under the hood while trying to start the car showed that something along the serpentine belt‘s path, as there are both visible metal shavings (small and glitter like) around the belt area, the belt was smoking slightly after the car ceased running, and an attempt to start the car made the engine jerk and rock as if there was an unreasonable load on it.

It didn’t take very long for the tow truck driver to arrive, and even more fortunately Bob and his wife Debbie came out to wait for the tow truck with us and then drive the three of us back to my area. Getting the car loaded on the truck was fun because there wasn’t enough space in the lot to directly align the truck with my car, so as the driver winched the vehicle on to the flat bed I hung out of the vehicle steering it (with no power steering) in reverse so it’d move straight on to the bed. Then, do to a slightly similar situation at Shelby Tire (my preferred local shop) I had to slowly roll it down the ramp and into a parking spot.

After getting the car situated at the shop and dropping the key in the slot and Roxie at my house the four of us set out for dinner at Azteca’s, a wonderful Mexican place located in a strip mall just north of M-59 on the west side of Mound. Note that this place is not to be confused with the much less good local chain Grand Azteca, but it is located very close to Erma’s Frozen Custard, the perfect place to head for dessert after eating.

Now everything is set and it’s just time to wait and figure out what it’ll take to put the car right again. Thankfully Danielle is here and I’ve got leftover biryani from Friday’s dinner, so I should be able to get a ride to and from work and have no need to go out for food. I considered biking in, but even with the new panniers I’ve yet to figure out an effective way to carry a laptop, without which I can’t do my job. Instead I think I’ll leave the laptop there tomorrow and try riding in on Tuesday.

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Off The Rails

Published February 11, 2010

Danielle’s driver side window ended up coming out of the track at the front, so she wasn’t able to roll it up without holding it. By unbolting the front rail I was able to get it all aligned, but it seems her window has some wear in front of the lift mechanism. This causes the window to settle into place slightly ajar, requiring a gentle nudge to get it into place. If it was easier to get inside the door I’d look at disassembling the mechanism and fixing the bushing (or whatever), but for now I’ve left the window semi-operational.

On request the handle has been left off of the door panel (and set inside one of the map compartments) so she won’t roll the window down without remembering the slight effort required to fully re-seat it. Properly reinstalling the handle will just require clipping it back in place, but I won’t do so yet.

I suspect that this issue happened when the car was iced over and an attempt to roll down the window was made. The window was probably stuck in place and the force of pulling down on it deformed a bushing or some other part in the front of the mechanism, allowing it to wobble the current 1cm or so.

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Removing LEDs from a Sony CDX-GT43IPW

Published January 10, 2010

Having some time this evening I opened up the ultra-bright LED-bearing faceplate from Danielle’s new car stereo. I was originally hoping to replace the LEDs with red or green ones, but after seeing that some are part of the tactile switches I decided against that. Looking into things by plugging the bare PCB into the head unit (photo) I found that the most offensive LEDs were those under the horizontal translucent buttons, with two of them lighting each button, and the ring around the chromed selector dial.

The decision was made to remove one LED from under each of the translucent buttons and one from around the ring. The LED removal went well, save for discovering that the ring LEDs are wired in series, so removing one turned off the entire ring. Still, the final result is much nicer. The stereo now lights up blue, but it’s no longer a glaring blue which makes seeing the road at night difficult. If you compare this photo from last night to this one from tonight you can see how much more reserved (and appropriate) the illumination now is. The loss of the knob ring illumination isn’t really a concern, as it’s the only knob on the device so it’s easy to find and other light glinting off the chrome finish makes it easy to see anyway. The tradeoff for less irritating light is worth it.

Interestingly there were two discreet sets of solder pads for each LED, and some silkscreen on the back that indicated selections for amber and green LEDs. I suspect that other similar models of this stereo offered the other illumination colors and this particular model was just for Target, or perhaps low end markets, or something like that. Or maybe this board is just fitted differently when used in other higher-end models…

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Ultra-Bright Blue LEDs!

Published January 9, 2010

Ever since getting an iPod Danielle’s been wanting a way to connect it to her car. While at Target today I happened across a Sony CDX-GT43IPW on clearance for $69.98, and a few hours later it was installed in her car. Installing an aftermarket stereo in a 2000-ish GM J Platform normally requires some wiring trickery so that the factory chime sounds aren’t lost, but thanks to Danielle’s car already having an aftermarket stereo I was able to simply adapt the old wiring harness to this stereo’s needs, resulting in the harness seen here.

Disassembling the dash to access the stereo was also a bit of a hassle, but easier than expected. The stereo worked on first go, and the iPod interface is surprisingly decent. The built-in menu system which manages the iPod is about as good as one can get from a one line display, and there’s another mode which simply allows the iPod to controlled directly. There’s also a standard 3.5mm Aux In on the faceplate, should she wish to hook up another device that way.

The biggest down side is the ultrabright blue LEDs which illuminate the controls on the front panel. For now Danielle just ignores them while driving, but I imagine they will get pretty irritating soon. Sometime tomorrow I’ll probably open up the face plate and check out the LEDs. Hopefully it’s easy enough to open and they are pretty easy to replace. Green or red, and much less bright, should work out well.

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Accident Waiting To Happen

Published February 5, 2009

This person, turning left in front of me, hadn't bothered to clear off most of her car's windshield.

Dear people of the world. Please…

…scrape the rest of your windshield before attempting to drive…
…do not apply perfume / cologne or scented hand lotion before touching public facilities (gas pumps, door knobs, door handles, etc)…
…do not smoke out your car window in slow traffic, as it stinks…
…do not get your filth on the toilet seat…

…as then life will be both nicer and easier for everyone else. Thank you.

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Honda DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communications)

Published December 18, 2008

While parking yesterday I saw a couple of these Honda R&D vehicles for DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communications) parked next to each other. They initially caught my eye because each has one or more small, round antennas stuck on the top. A quick look around online shows that each manufacturer seems to be doing some manner of DSRC work for things ranging from freight management to toll booths, collision avoidance / proximity notification, traffic detection, etc. This sounds like it could be interesting to play with.

(Yes, this photo was taken in a very public parking garage.)

Here, have a few more moblog photos:

· My coworker Nick happy about his machine crashing again. At least we now know the cause.
· Crappy traffic on the way to work today.
· I accidently opened the door marked 18 on my chocolate-filled advent calender today.
· Vernors branded department store quality mountain bike.

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Oil Slick and Other Images

Published December 2, 2008

I do not like seeing oil slicks like this in a parking lot. This is from the snow plow / salt spreading people.

Here, have some moblog images:

· I do not like seeing oil slicks like this in a parking lot. This is from the snow plow / salt spreading people.
· Car with YOU SUCK @ PARKING written in paint marker on the side window.
· Engrish on a model helicopter box at Microcenter. (Click to read more.)
· Deatheater standing near the console at IPM.
· It’s December 1st, time to start on the advent calendar my mom gave me.
· DBAN having just finished running on my old D610.
· Bye bye, D610. Time for me to begin using another laptop at work.
· The bathroom at work has a shiny new air freshener installed.

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Good Customer Service

Published April 9, 2008

Those of you who know me know that I’m not particularly shy about complaining about poor products, poor customer service, or other things which I’m not too happy about. While I also will mention products and companies I’m happy with, I don’t make particularly permanent record of it.

Recently I’ve had a couple good customer experiences and I wanted to make note of them, so I started a page on nuxx.net called Good Customer Service. The three which I currently have listed are Cateye (replaced a broken part, although it’s arguable if this is good or just acceptable), VG’s (who put in a bike rack on request), and Cequent (who sent me a new bolt after I stupidly broke the last one).

On a slightly related note, I received a fastener kit from Cequent today which included the U bolt I broke, and I had no problems fitting it on to the car. I even torqued it down with the questionable wrench, but only after first exercising the wrench to be certain that it’s appropriately clicking when reaching the desired torque. Now that I understand it and it’s shortcomings, it’s a reasonable, but cheap torque wrench. I don’t think I’ll be returning it.

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