QTDDTOT : Questions That Don't Deserve Their Own Threads

A place to ask all your short automotive related questions.

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Which part is the car's feet? The wheels or the tires?

I would say the tires are more like the shoes

Yea you right

How do I get my shitbox commodore 5ltr going again after 6 months of sitting? Can't start my own thread cause my ISP is range banned.
Brb
>injectors clean and squirting fuel
>plugs have spark also new leads
>cleaned throttle body and replaced shitty air valve plunger thingy
>just coughs and splutters when you turn it over
>starts and idles with engine starter sprayed in the throttle, map sensor and tps disconnected but runs very rich and will stall with any weight bput on it.
It seems to me that a sensor or something is telling the motor to not give enough fuel or something. I just can't into computer cars desu. If it was carby I'd be fine.

Can someone tell me in a brief way how Mazda's HCCI Compression Ignition engine design works?

>squeeze compressible gas
>squeezing a gas raises the temperature of the gas
>ignites at flashpoint

I assume by "cleaned the the throttle body" this includes the IAC as well.

Unless there's a vacuum leak, I'd say that sounds like a sensor problem. I would start by pulling codes to see if it gives you any clues about which sensor. It's probably the air sensor.

How do I stop my calves from rubbing on the front part of the seat?

A summer dress works well and looks nice.

So I found a REALLY cheap 6-port 13b on craigslist in great condition

Should I go for it or should I find a 4-port? Are 4-ports that much better?

>summer dress
That wouldn´t change anything and look ridiculous.

Not at all. My office mate took to wearing summer dresses for a few summers and they were surprisingly fetching, and she's not even buxom. She has good taste, though.

I´m a guy...

But your question is like
>hay Veeky Forums how do I sit in a chair?
Maybe you should consider MtF.

My question is more like
>how do I sit on a too big chair comfortably

So I have two issues going on that became really noticeble today

1. My driver's side front wheel is making squeaking sounds when it goes over anything that isn't 180 degrees, so just a tiny bit of road being a little higher will make it squeak. What should I look for? The front shock? How can I tell if its fucked?

Starting today, on my dash, the E-brake (F-150, 2004) light came out and then off, it did this a few times, I tried releasing the brake, putting the brake and then releasing it, but it still turned on, after I was on the road for a bit it seemed to have settled? What the fuck did my truck mean by this?

Update: tried setting the E brake and releasing while the light was on, does not turn off the light

Please help

Manlets never learn. It can't be helped.

Or you could try things like strap-on lumbar support pillows, sitting on a phone book, or whatever else you need to do to use the potty or reach your food at the dinner table. Just don't use a rear-facing child's seat because it's not good for your shoulders to be reaching behind your head like that all the time.

I just rolled over 14 years and 100k miles. Happy being old, car! At that time I changed the sparks and the oil as per the manual. Is there anything typical for a car this old I should keep an eye out for in the future in terms of maintenance?

Change the gearbox oil.

Do you have the manual? There's usually a chart of things the manufacturer considers to be worth changing as preventative maintenance by about that time.

The rest is up to either waiting for something to start getting dodgy or thinking to yourself something like
>well if I only expect it to go another 14 years and 100k miles, maybe I should put in new shocks so I can get maximum enjoyment out of a proper ride before something eventually really shits the bed

Come back when you hit 409k

ebrake light is usually triggered by a little switch by the ebrake pedal or lever itself. So there could be something caught in there or possibly there is a strange wiring fault. This I would ignore unless it starts to correlate with a different problem or something.

As for the squeak, I might start by having a look at the brakes on that wheel. Take them out, have a look, put them back in, see where it goes from there. Is it a reeeeeeeeeeee grind, a squee-squee-squee-squee-squee, or like an odd one time *meep* or *meep* ... *beep mudeep* kind of thing?

Kinda like a squee squee, but it occurs regardless if im breaking or not, it's not like a squeak every time the wheel reaches a certain rotation, it's much more frequent than that, on uneven road and with the window down you can hear it better. It's a 2004 F-150, I think it has around 130k miles, I forget but it's close

I'll check around and see if I can find anything obvious around the E-brake, kinda weird that it just decides to do this now since I never really use it

Sounds like something suspension-related. It could be the kind of largely harmless squeak trucks tend to accumulate after that long. If it were my truck and I didn't have a bad gut feeling about it, I'd let it go to see if it gets worse, and just mention it to the guy when inspection comes around so he can double check the ball joints or tie rod ends or see if something looks unusually worn or whatever.

If it does start getting worse then that would be the sign to find out what's rubbing what before it gets worn down enough to need replaced.

Does anyone know what the size of these wheels/tires might be?

Only been driving stick for a few weeks. Say I'm cruising in 6th at 70-80mph turning 3k on the highway. While I can pass or go up a hill without downshifting, it's an incredibly inefficient way of doing so. What would be a safe RPM to rev it up to before I engage 5th so I don't lock up the wheels. I've already upshifted from 5th into 6th way back at 40-45 mph so I'm unsure what rpm 5th would be turning at highway speeds.

rotards, where are you guys

Unless you're driving something ancient, any RPM below redline is fine. In fact it's arguably good to wind out the engine once in a while.

>so I don't lock up the wheels
What do you mean by this?

I drive a 8th gen Civic Si. Drove 100mi down the highway in 6th the whole time. Had plenty of torque to accelerate without downshifting but I wasted a lot of gas. My gut tells me rev up +2k rpm before downshifting.

>Civic Si
Oh you're fine. Don't worry about it. The trick to manual is to trust your gut. The car will tell you when to shift up and when to shift down. When it feels right for what you want to do, then you're in the correct gear.

It just takes some practice and experience like anything else, e.g. learning to play an instrument. Don't be afraid to experiment, and then you'll start throwing gears around without even thinking about it.

>tfw had a dream about a Grand Marquis with actual feet running down the road

Nah man after 100k it's all regular stuff. Oil changes, air filter changes, chassis "lubrication" whatever that means. I suppose the manufacturer didn't expect the car to last much longer than 150k.

They say the 5MT doesn't need to change its fluid. Is that true or bull?

Don't think of it by the numbers, feel for the right amount of throttle. Give it a tap to downshift. If it wasn't enough, give it a bigger tap next time. It will become intuitive.

Chassis lubrication would mean things like door hinges and other such joints. They can eventually wear and rust and get hard to move and squeak and stuff. Something like red or white lithium grease is often recommended, depending on the situation it could be easier to drip some high-weight motor oil in, or even better some axle grease if you can figure out how to work it in. If your bikefag you might have other lubrication ideas, but just don't go too light like with WD40 or something that's going to dissolve whatever lubricant is already in there, thin it out, and cause faster wear with little to no protection.

Manual gearbox oil you can usually just leave in forever. Similar with diff oil. But it sure isn't going to hurt anything to switch it out every 100k or so if you want to get the high mileage score.

I'd start to be a little more worried about items they don't list in the manual like timing belts and chains, water and oil pumps, that sort of thing where it's not just an "old car thing" if it goes, but 100k isn't really all that old for a modern car in the first place. You'd have to know something about your car and what tends to go wrong with it at age to decide how much TLC you want to give it.

new car buyer here
is a grand marquis with 380k on the odometer a no go regardless of service history? he didn't swap the engine

Yeah iac is the air valve plunger thingy that I replaced. Also no codes only map from when I ran it disconnected and it's vacuum hose to the manifold seems fine/ hold vacuum when you put your finger on it

It'll hold vacuum with a leak. Otherwise it would just stall for lack of being able to suck in air.

No codes is a bit odd. I was wondering if maybe it were running on some sort of limp map due to conflicting sensor inputs. Will it rev all the way to redline? Not all ECUs do this, but if it hits a limit way before then that's a sure sign it's running on a limp map.

Another quick and easy thing to do that probably won't have any effect is to disconnect the battery, stand on the brakes for half a minute, let it sit another ten, and then put it back together and let it idle until the temp gauge starts to move. That should deprive it of electrical power enough to reset the ECU and any possible bogus learned parameters. But this really sounds like something that would happen if it critically is unable to figure out a realistic A/F ratio.

Beyond that? Is the timing fucked? Mechanical problem? Does it run better or worse if you spray something combustible into a vacuum line?

Not super knowledgeable mechanically, but my car failed its warrant of fitness a month ago on account of a small hole in the muffler, I booked it in with the local place to get it sorted and retested, but they called an hour after I dropped it off to say they couldn't order a new one in (1993 merc w124 in rural NZ). however, when I picked it up later that day, there was a low rumble in the engine and car sound I guess?
it only goes away when it goes over 5krpm, and as soon as you take pressure off the gas it comes back
is this a coincidental suspension issue, or did they disconnect the muffler or what? can barely talk to people while driving its so loud now

I'm not familiar if there's a problem getting an aftermarket replacement for that particular model if you can't get OEM anymore, or if it's just a shitfest to get one to kiwiland. I wouldn't doubt that they had some wrench monkey take the old one off before discovering they couldn't source a new one, and then stuck the old one back on with a fresh leak due to lack of new gasket, rusted out pipes, whatever else. It is a '93 so it's about due for that sort of problem.

If it were me, I would go crawl and to take a look and pics of what's going on, especially at the flange between the muffler and the midpipe. Then you can go on to make a decision about how best to proceed.

Veeky Forums fuck off who doesn't know a god damn thing about cars. I need a family car and we are looking at the 2018 Rav4.
What the hell is suspension and why does the Rav4 "Adventure" have a bigger one?
Does suspension make it taller than the average rav4? Is that specific model as tall as a Highlander?
Or is the Toyota Adventure just a massive rip off and I should stick with a regular one?

Suspension is the stuff that connects the wheels to the car. If you just need a family car, it's irrelevant and you don't need any kind of "adventure" suspension or lift or anything else. Normalfag suspension is designed for normalfags who just need to do normalfag things with a car.

Stick with a regular one.

Sorry, I thought you meant a dodgy vacuum line to the sensor. I'm sure if the manifold were leaking, I'd hear it.
When running with the map sensor disconnected, it's definitely running in limp. I'm probably just gonna have find the all the sensor wiring diagrams and test what they're putting out.

Ok but this is my deal, I live in the south with trucks everywhere and would love to maybe see around shit a little better. Would the adventure help?

I'm not familiar with the current model line and you'd have to jewgle it to see if the ride height is a little bit higher. I doubt it's going to put you up high enough around pickemup trucks, and it's certainly not going to do squat against real trucks.

That's just my personal outlook though. I understand that for women in particular riding up a little higher makes them feel more comfortable.

Yeah, running in limp with the MAP disconnected is to be expected. The question is what it does with the sensors connected. That way you can try to ferret out where it's getting a bad reading, assuming it's a sensor problem.

Another thing to do is to see if you can find a difference in the way it acts cold vs warmed up. You probably know they they typically run open-loop on a cold map until the coolant temp sensor signals it's time to run closed-loop. So any differences there can be an additional clue.

Why would my 308 cut off randomly during driving? My steering wheel doesn't lock up and I can turn it on quickly and continue.

Good suspension doesn't always mean higher
I can't tell if it's in limp mode because it won't run and there's no specific code for limp home being engaged, as far as I'm aware. I'll check out the cooler temp sensor but I'm sure it was running much the same warm. Cheers lad

Well, if disconnecting the MAP is what you need to get it to run, then I would have to guess that either the sensor is bad or there's something mechanical that's causing it to read the pressure all wrong.

Beyond that I can't help you with make and model specific quirks but that sounds typical of an air meter problem.

I mean unless the TPS is putting out some ridiculous signal at idle. That should be really easy to check with a voltmeter.

Cheers man, im going to get a new one cut to fit on monday so if it's just a bad reattachment of the old one then no worries. Ill have a look to make sure though

Can I drift a 1998 ford fiesta and if so what are some basic changes that need to be made to ensure I don't do something stupid like rip my tires off

Makes sense to me. Gonna stick with the regular model, save a lot too.
I really appreciate it user. And yes it does make us feel more comfortable.

To be honest with you I've spent a little bit of time in an older RAV4 and I would rate it pretty damn good in terms of a combination of ride height, handling, room inside, snow capability, and all the rest.

The newer ones look like wannabe SUV blobmobiles. I don't know if they retain the decent handling; my personal opinion is that safety stuff and visibility is all well and good but at the end of the day I want to be able to take evasive maneuvers, not roll it or be driving a cruise missile that has no choice but to plough through (I have done this as well, fun in it's own way, but I'll take the nimble option).

I want to get a exhaust bypass to scare all the shitty racerbois in my area that drive Citroën saxo's and civics all riced to shit with their cherry bomb exhausts by running an exhaust bypass I can trigger whenever they rev at me at the trafic lights.

Wich one should I get? Left or right?

My clutch is gritty changing gears at low speed. It's buttery smooth when in neutral. Does my clutch fluid need changed?

Probably neither. Even those big V10 fire trucks with legal cutouts don't sound like anything much but loud when the hit the cutouts.

A well-considered exhaust or a jake brake is more of a startle.

What can I do if my engine is an old carb 50bhp 4 cylinder?

Short-ram intake so you can hear the carb. Punch out any cats in the way with a screwdriver. About where the resonator is, cut the exhaust apart there.

If your engine is worth a damn, it will go rrrrrAAAAAAAAAAAAATTATATATA at about 2-3k and sound like the nigger valkyries are coming to spray napalm for viet name 2.0.

My airbox is FUCK HUGE (pic related) what would I have to replace with what, I'm not really interested in making permanent changes but I could swap in my airbox for inspections or daily driving.

Also no resonator or cats, 80s car here

Forgot pic

What the fuck is that

Dude take that off and let's see a picture of your carb. You can't get the intake sounds will all tubes and hoses on it.

Why do we still carry a spare tire around?

I've had cars fail on me when away from home for numerous reasons but I've never even known anyone to have been caught with a flat tire

Lube monkey here, you're retarded.

why

Is it true that Karting is the best way to get into real Motorsports? I'm looking for turnleft or preferably circuit racing.

People have flats and blowouts all the time, you probably just jinxed yourself and now you'll pick up a spike in your sidewall

That's what I hear. It's definitely cheaper then buying 240, building it to whatever spec you hope to race and crashing it on your own dollar until you can get sponsored

How much is a good kart? How fast do they go? I don't mind doing 150 in a car but even 60 on a little open thing like that sounds terrifying.

Moving to Ireland soon, turns out they have a jewish as fuck road tax that scales with engine displacement

But cars older than 30 are pretty much exempt from it. So.. whats a cheap car older than 1987 that will give me the most reliability?

Yeah, if you're a fucking teenager. Adults do club racing. Regional contests with real cars.

Also get ready to accept that any talent you have is already wasted because you didn't start when you were 8.

Try doing 60 on a motorcycle where you get closer to the ground with every corner and stick your head into the opposing lane when you take a racing line. Karts are ez.

Up to wat part should I take off? Is it ok to let dust and misc. particles in the intake?
It's a k1g engine in case it's of any help.

IKF / SKUSA national champion here

Yes and no, for skills yes. No car series is as competitive as the highest levels of karting outside of Formula 1 / btcc / wtcc etc. Thus it's the best place to learn how to be fast and to learn race craft (which are totally different).

For instance when Michael Schumacher raced in the SKUSA nationals he placed mid field even with full Tony Kart factory support.

No, because kart racing won't get you anywhere in the US so it's a waste of time and money if you're already over 18 and most regional / club level racing is low competition in comparison so you don't need karting to be good in it.

If only IMSA would get involved in karting.. but that's another discussion

I just want to see where this alleged carb is with all that shite in the way. Obviously you'll want to have a filter on it.

>karts are ez
kek, public roads are ez

KZ1 / S1 go over 100 on some tracks btw.

I've popped maybe six tires so far, sometimes for the most retarded reasons you could imagine. It's the kind of thing where once it happens to you then you understand why you'd rather have a spare on hand.

I had troubles with my B15 Sentra with sluggish acceleration at around 3.5k-4.5k RPM so I changed the spark plugs and cleaned the MAF sensor. Now when I go to start the car the entire fucking car shakes, sputters, and dies. Do I need to change the MAF sensor?

When going wot sometimes the engine jerks and feels like it's losing connection to the clutch.
Low mile car...20k. Do I just need a "better" clutch or am I missing something ?

Are you sure you put sparkplug wires back correctly.
You likely fucked your maf up. You aren't supposed to scrub it or anything that can break it or foul it.
And make sure you use something that evaporates clean like maf cleaner or brake cleaner.

most cleaners especially carb cleaner leave a residue.

Sorry I took my time, it's dark out.

You're like my favorite person ever on Veeky Forums. What the fuck is that big tube running from the airbox to whatever? In any sensible car in the world you should be able to just hose-clamp a filter on top of that carb or something, but this looks like hardcore talmud study.

standard or dual clutch?

a clutch slip in a standard car won't feel like a jerk it will just feel sluggish and rpms will rise quickly with no corresponding inertia of acceleration.

why does australia use kilowatts instead of horsepower?

Anything I should know before buying a car with TDI engine?
Thinking of getting Skoda Fabia next year in automatic no more than 2 yrs old and no more than 30k miles on the clock

Aw thanks! What did I do to deserve such praise? You're kind for helping me out!
I've always wondered what that THICC tube is, haynes manual didn't help.

If I removed the box marked in green what would I do with the tubes marked red?

First punch it out with a long screw driver in case there's a catalytic converter in there. Then well, I'm not sure. You have to find some sort of high temperature way to plug it. I assume you can't weld, but perhaps you could go to the hardware store and find metal things you could concentrically shove in to it until it's blocked, and finish up with some JB Weld.

But if it leaks, it'll make rad sounds. That appears to be the world's worst EGR system ever. I was once in a Taco Bell parking lot investigating my rotted out EGR fitting and a nigger walks over to see what all this noise is about
>finally get the fitting off
>pull the trottle
>engine shoots 3' of blue flame in the air
>nigga be all like
>woah!
I think that got him woke

Wait, you lost me.
Catalytic converter in the intake?
EGR in an 80s french car that litteraly doesn't give a shit about emissions?

Nah mate I'm just worried if there's a catalytic converter hanging of the front part. Once you disconnect the "hot air" tube you should poke at it from there. There might even be spiders in there.

As for the rest, there's no need to suck exhaust into the intake. That's called EGR. At best they were trying a ghetto way to make sure your carb didn't ice over in the cold.

So I should start at a club and then try to get to regional?

I thought EGR was re-using exhaust to control emissions, like in diesel cars,

Also I'm thinking it's mostly hot air recirculation because it comes from the cylinder head and from the top of the exhaust manifold?

>I thought EGR was re-using exhaust to control emissions, like in diesel cars,
You are 100% correct. In a gasoline engine, it serves to put inert gases back into the cylinder to increase compression, capture more heat, and help re-burn more ugly molecules. It's an emergency way to deal with not being able to shoot more unburnt hydrocarbons out the tailpipe.

Can't see shit in your pic related. You'll have to translate the russian hacker runes for me.

Oh wow, thanks for your explanation, pretty well put.
Also yeah no idea what the russian guy is doing, I'm Spanish so no luck there.

It looks like a highly specific complaint to me, since on the left side it's pointing to some technicality with the valve train and on the right it's pointing to something sticking out of the valve train cover. So I don't get why you found that image or what you're talking about.

As for the green wire in the russian hacker pic related, that's a lead off the lambda sensor (we call this an O2 sensor in first world countries) so that like 3 diodes, a resistor, and 300km of vacuum lines can try to keep the A/F ratio close to stochiometric so that the catalytic converter can do its job for emissions.

Oh no I think I didn't explain myself, the arrows are painted in with mspaint by myself. I found a disassembly of an engine very similar to my own to find out what that weird thick tube that goes in to the airbox before the single carb.
Since the air comes from the head I'm guessing hot air?

>from the head
I think we have a language barrier. Do you mean "header?" The air can't possibly come from the head, but then you posted a picture of valve covers so I'm not sure.

I didn't think the air could come from the head but then again there is a tube, the one I marked in red earlier that comes from the engine's most top area and comments to the air intake, and the arrows I drew are where the thick tube connects.
I wish my car was easy.

nah mate the green part #3 is obviously the air intake. I don't know what red part #12 could be other than the exhaust manifold.

The real question is what's happening between them. If you take it apart, you could find out.

>How do I stop my calves from rubbing on the front part of the seat?

You clearly are an automatic transmission user. And thus you mean ONE calf and not two calves. That's because one leg will be used for the accelerator and brake pedals, so the calf of that leg will never rest on the front of the seat.

You need to think more about the problem of how to sit in a chair. If the chair is too big for you, then you should also have mentioned that having your calves against the front of the seat keeps your back from reaching the back of bucket seat. If that is the case, then you can add a lumbar type support cushion.

If adding cushions or a lumbar support cushion is unsightly, you can use a seat cover to hide those cushions. Special Note: new cars have airbags that pop out of the seats. If your seat cover is not compatible with that, then don't use that seat cover.

The other case is that you worded the question poorly and did not mean to say your calf was touching the front of the seat but the top lip of the seat. If that is the case, then lower the height of front edge of the seat by tilting the forward lip down. Electric seat adjusters allow that. I know my car allows me to tilt the seat like that.

>Is there anything typical for a car this old
It will be listed in your owner's manual in the list of scheduled maintenance procedures. Typically, those are far more detailed for the first 100K miles primarily because your warranty periods are all during that expected time period for the typical driver. After 120K or so, you find not much detail probably for the reason as one other poster said.

I don't have a MT, but I've heard other MT users on other forum sites recommend switching the oil. You should go to the other forum sites dedicated to your make and model. That's because they have more specific comments such as how certain year ranges had certain maintenance quirks or special bonus warranty features (which your current dealer might not tell you because he makes more money from a non-warranty repair than from a warranty-covered repair). For example, how it was recommended to have a head gasket replacement for a certain range of subaru and it was covered by bonus warranty coverage awarded by the manufacturer for that specific item.

>I'm probably just gonna have find the all the sensor wiring diagrams and test what they're putting out.
You've read the OBD2 codes when it was hot versus cold to see what new codes appear?