The Automotive (& other mechanized vehicles) thread

[Chankgeez]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-real-r ... 1525369304

[colin]

I repainted the wheels on my VW this weekend. Didn't turn out fantastic, I didn't sand well enough. But still looks a lot better than it did.

[Chankgeez]

They may not look great up close, but they look fine in that last photo.

[Achtane]

I live by the 20 foot visual test. See? Looks spiffy!
That's a cool looking car. Everything should be hatchback or wagon...

Ran some errands today, tried to start the car this afternoon and
...huh. The engine turns and turns.and never starts. I did the spark plug...spark...test and it seems to be getting no electricity. I just replaced the distributor, rotor, and plug wires like a month ago. The plugs are still good.
Bleh...

[Disarm D'arcy]

I live by the 20 foot visual test. See? Looks spiffy!
That's a cool looking car. Everything should be hatchback or wagon...

Mah dude

[colin]

I live by the 20 foot visual test. See? Looks spiffy!
That's a cool looking car. Everything should be hatchback or wagon...

Mah dude

Agreed. Non-hatch trunks are so much less practical. Plus, hatches look way cooler.

Problems with my vw continue, sounds like I have a bad wheel bearing now. I'm not going to have time to deal with it for a couple of weeks, so I'm back to daily driving the Xterra for now.

[Achtane]

Got a new ignition coil per The Flowchart™. No difference.
Checked the relevant fuses, they seem OK.
Tested the crankshaft position sensor, it's OK.
There is an external ignitor that I wasn't able to test today, but everything says that it's the last possible suspect.
Tested the pickup coil in the distributor, it's OK. Or so it says...
I forgot that I didn't get a new distributor entirely, just the new cap + rotor + wires. Some dudes on toyota forums say that even if the distributor is testing OK, it could still be busted. Ordered a cheap, probably shitty unit, just to see. Then I'll get an OEM one from the junkyard later (there were no Corollas like mine in their inventory this time around). New OEM prices are crazy.
If this doesn't work, I'm not sure what I'll do next. Strange that it was totally fine and decided to die in my driveway, but I am grateful for that.
Applied a new sticker in honor of today's failings:

[colin]

Sounds frustrating. Electrical problems are the worst.

[lordgalvar]

I live by the 20 foot visual test. See? Looks spiffy!
That's a cool looking car. Everything should be hatchback or wagon...

Ran some errands today, tried to start the car this afternoon and
...huh. The engine turns and turns.and never starts. I did the spark plug...spark...test and it seems to be getting no electricity. I just replaced the distributor, rotor, and plug wires like a month ago. The plugs are still good.
Bleh...

I had my Silverado did something like this a long time ago and it was dumb...
Fuel filter.

I got into the habit of changing them yearly after that.

Kinda surprised the Corolla has a dist in the traditional sense (don't know much about them though). I would have guessed coil over direct system.

Anyway, is it like an HEI or optical? Maybe pertronix has a cheap system? On the mustang, when I did new wires, I had to go out there ever dang day and push and kinda re-adjust the wires because the would slip off the coil or cap until they finally broke in. Once, the stupid coil wire popped off while driving and I was getting intermittent misses (I'm guessing it would fire when the coil over came the resistance in the Air gap).

Does it have an ignition box (capacitive disharge or something). Could just need a new box like a Mallory or something . Seem people replace stock ones with easy to find aftermarket because sometimes just the dumbest heat or vibration kills em.

http://www.car-part.com/ let's you search junk yards all over.

Just remembered my old Volkswagen superbeetle would kill coils several times a year...found out it was a short somewhere around the steering column or dash (I guess). My dad and I could never find it. Had it towed to a shop and the tow truck driver left it in first and caught it on fire...and the company paind for a new engine and everything. Then the syncros went bad in the transmission.

Don't know if any of that helps.

Speaking of the Silverado, I need one of those light stickers...dumb secondary sensor won't trip in la driving conditions.

Wheels look good Colin. Better seats are always good. I forgot how annoying seat could be until I got the mustang....they don't lock and no head rest. Hard stop, hard bending greeting to the steering wheel haha.

On the mustang, I got a purple billet servo for the transmission. Been kinda working through the math in my head for rear end gearing. C4 is 2.46 in first/1.46 second/1.00 in third...I think I have a 2.78:1 open diff in there now. Thinking of going to a Detroit trutrac at 3.25:1. Gotta keep the auto because it's my wife's car.
Found a head for it cheap too...don't know where it is though...hasn't been shipped yet (cheaper than a guitar pedal!). No big deal...just collecting parts.

[colin]

So my dream car's for sale locally:



Street legal, Exige S1 race car. I need it. I also need a ton of money. Bought my first lottery ticket in months on the way home from work.

[Chankgeez]

Good luck, Colin.

[crochambeau]

Fuel filter.

I was going to ask: does it have fuel pressure?

If you can confirm spark (and timing/sequence) the next step is confirming fuel is reaching the combustion chamber.

Clogged filter, bad pump (or bad relay/fuse), or empty tank are all culprits. Don't laugh at the last one, it happens.

After that is air, but that almost never takes an absolute nose dive.

I need to jump a PT Cruiser and park it on a pad for head removal. I'm really not looking forward to it, but it's got to happen sooner or later .

[Chankgeez]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9jdcSBgWcU

[Achtane]

Yeah, my Corolla was made like half a year before they stopped putting distributors on em. It also has OBD1, lol.
My initial thought was the fuel filter. The car has 178k miles on it and who knows when the previous owner changed it last. I haven't actually tested for fuel pressure yet 'cause I'm still at the no spark stage. But I haven't messed with it in a few days. I think I'm gonna re-check the relays because I'm not sure if I did it correctly last time.

In other news, I showed my soon to be brothers-in-law the power of panther piss (a 50/50 mix of acetone and transmission fluid). Shake it up right before applying to whatever's frozen on, and it's done for. They had 2 lug nuts so stuck on that an impact gun and a 4 foot breaker bar couldn't loosen em. I brushed some on and 30 minutes later got them loose with a lug nut wrench. That shit is magic.

I had no idea the pope was such a baller.

[Achtane]

A bad 30A ignition fuse. What the hell. The break was so tiny that I missed it. That's so stupid.
On the plus side...the ignition system is now almost entirely new parts. And the car runs again. lol.
I don't know why the fuse blew and I'm not thinking about it right now. Just gonna get some spares.

The car fun never lets up. Last night, on the way back from North Carolina, we stopped for some 1AM McDonald's and waited forever in line. The Grand Marquis was idling roughly and suddenly we lost cold AC...then it began to wildly overheat! Yay!
So we let the engine cool and checked for leaks or coolant loss to no avail. Maybe the radiator fan stopped working? Water pump? I dunno.
Anyway, we utilized some high-level physics and decided to book it home and just let the wind cool the engine because I'd been awake for 20 hours by that point and there's no way I'm taking an Uber home and coming back to a fucking drive thru lot to fix it the next day.

Glad I didn't get pulled over for 50 in a 25.