Ask a Car Nut - Part Deux

[Formaldehyde]

You are wasting untold dollars running 93 octane. If it is knocking at 87 octane, try 89 instead. But I don't see why it should be. Are you certain it is knocking instead of something else? What does your operating manual say is the minimum octane for your engine?

EDIT: Your pickup apparently has a knock sensor, so it shouldn't ever knock just as long as you run the minimum recommended octane according to your operator manual. Or perhaps it needs replacement...

You might very well have clogged fuel injectors. Try adding fuel injector cleaner to the next couple of tankfuls of gas. You should add a cleaner every year or so, but if you haven't done so you might need 2 treatments instead of one.

Whatever you do, don't try the air cleaner trick. First, it isn't going to produce 9 more horsepower. It will only be 2 or 3 at most. But of vastly more importance, you are allowing air which has not passed through your air filter to reach the engine. Just replace your air filter on a regular basis. Or if you want a slight increase in horsepower, go with a free flow air filter like K&N (assuming they make one for your application).

You might also just want to buy a battery tender to recharge your battery instead of letting it idle for extended periods. They cost about $25. If you do this frequently enough, you might want to get the optional permanently attached cable. That way you just have to plug it in instead of attaching the clips to the proper sides of the battery terminals.

 

[Zelig]

Whoa I used to have a '93 Nissan Hardbody.

 

[IAM]

Whoa I used to have a '93 Nissan Hardbody.

That's kind of what mine looks like but less 'extra's'. The truck didn't come with a rear bumper, passenger mirror, AC, etc. Bought it new and had noooo idea I would have it this long. It has been the best vehicle I have ever had. No major repairs, never left me on the side of the road. It's got more scars than I do.

 

[peter grimes]

"hands on a hardbody" - documentary that follows the contestants who participate in a Nissan dealership giveaway that requires them to keep one hand touching the pickup at all times. Last person standing gets the pickup.

Sounds like a lane way to spend 90 minutes but really isn't.

 

[Formaldehyde]

This is great:


Link to video.

My husband and I have been praying for a truck. And this is what God wants us to do.

Longview Police Say "Hardbody" Contestant Killed Himself

A frightening scene involving the Longview Hands on a Hardbody contest early Thursday morning. Police say a contestant killed himself in front of them at a local store.

He was contestant number 4. Quiet, soft spoken and well liked. But shortly before the 6:00 a.m. break, 24-year-old Richard Vega of Tyler took his hands off the hardbody truck and began walking across the street to K-mart.

"When I talked to Ricky this morning, he seemed fine. I said, 'How you doing?' He said, 'I had too much caffeine.' Next thing you know , three minutes before the horn blows he's taken off, gone, across the street to K-mart" said KYKX radio announcer Danny Tyler.

Witnesses say they saw Vega cross this street, calmly walk over to K-mart and throw a trash can through the front doors. As K-mart employees scrambled to get out, he calmly asked one of them a question.

"He asked where the sporting goods section was at and that's it," said a K-mart employee.

Getting a shot-gun and shells, he tried to make his way out, but he was stopped.

"When officers approached him as he was coming to the front of the store, they actually confronted him told him to drop the weapon and at that point he took a couple of steps back and shot himself," said Sergeant Carlos Samples.

Some also noticed that Vega had been taking numerous power drinks that were loaded with caffeine.

"He'd had about six, and he said am I all right. My head is buzzing, am I all right? And right up to the last moments, before he ran off, he was asking for help," says Mawre.

They should try the same thing with a Ferrari. I bet they get a lot more Satanists.

 

[Samson]

I have an electrical leak in my car. I start the car (today with jump leads) and the battery charges (voltage 13.3 between the battery terminals). I turn it off and the charge goes from 11.8 to ~11.5 in ~50 minutes.

How can I diagnose the problem with this car? My currant plan is to take out fuses until the charge on the battery does not drop (this may take some time, perhaps 1 fuse per day), disconnect the battery when I park it and drive around with a spare battery JIC.

This is a 1999 BMW 523.

 

[IglooDame]

I have an electrical leak in my car. I start the car (today with jump leads) and the battery charges (voltage 13.3 between the battery terminals). I turn it off and the charge goes from 11.8 to ~11.5 in ~50 minutes.

How can I diagnose the problem with this car? My currant plan is to take out fuses until the charge on the battery does not drop (this may take some time, perhaps 1 fuse per day), disconnect the battery when I park it and drive around with a spare battery JIC.

This is a 1999 BMW 523.

Are you sure your battery isn't just fading?

 

[Samson]

Are you sure your battery isn't just fading?

Not certain, but I do not think so. It went from fine to going flat quickly pretty much overnight, certainly in less that 2 weeks (2 weeks ago I left it for 2 weeks and it started fine when I got back).

 

[IglooDame]

Not certain, but I do not think so. It went from fine to going flat quickly pretty much overnight, certainly in less that 2 weeks (2 weeks ago I left it for 2 weeks and it started fine when I got back).

Okay, thought it worth asking - my car was sitting in the (above-freezing) garage for fairly long stretches (a week or two or three) without any starts, and went from "starts with a little extra difficulty" to "overnight goes from fully-charged to flat nothing nada might as well be a rock with cables drilled into it" over the course of a few weeks, and replacing the 2-yr-old battery fixed it completely.

 

[Cutlass]

2 years is a pretty short life for a battery. Electrical problems are some of the hardest problems to fix on a car. You have a lot of wiring, and most of it is difficult to get to. But much of it could get frayed over time. To rule out the battery, disconnect it when you park it at night, and check it in the morning to see if it's discharged. If it hasn't then your problem is somewhere else.

 

[Samson]

Thanks for the advice. I tried the method I put in my original post, and the when I remove the 1st one I try it stops the battery discharging (only gone down 50mV in 5 hours). As this is only the alarm and I can live without that I think it is now fixed.

 

[Cutlass]

If it was an aftermarket alarm, the installation of it could have been shoddy.

 

[Samson]

If it was an aftermarket alarm, the installation of it could have been shoddy.

I am fairly confident it is the original, the fuse was definitely marked in the factory as for the alarm, there is no sign of modification and it works off the original key. I do not care at all, I live in a pretty safe area and rarely leave it anywhere too dodgy.

 

[GinandTonic]

Perhaps for the sake of plausible deniability blow the fuse and put it back in. The better to play it thick as a carrot in a future claim.

 

[Samson]

Perhaps for the sake of plausible deniability blow the fuse and put it back in. The better to play it thick as a carrot in a future claim.

That is a good idea, but I have 3rd party only insurance and the car only cost £250 so I would not get much / anything after the excess anyway. I assume that is what you mean.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Sorry. I didn't see any of these posts because I'm not getting notifications despite being subscribed to this thread.

You were very lucky finding the problem circuit on the first shot! If you have a similar problem in the future and your voltmeter has an amps setting, you can disconnect the positive lead from the battery and attach your voltmeter set to amps between the battery post and the terminal. When you pull the right fuse it will go to zero, or nearly so.

 

[peter grimes]

Moderator Action: Email notifications are currently disabled. There should be something in Site Feedback about this, if there's not you should ask about it.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

We've started looking at cars here in town, mostly at dealerships. I had planned on buying any car $10k and under outright but I'd be willing to finance up to $5k. My wife's co-workers (at least two of them) told her it was a crazy-bad idea to buy a used car outright. They claim it's a bad decision to just give them a wad of cash because they claim you should just get a bank loan and make payments and that the $10k in the bank can continue building interest.

I think that's insane because I am quite certain our bank will not pay us higher interest on ~$10k in interest than they will charge on in interest on a $10k to $12k loan. Plus, with a loan, we'd have to pay higher insurance for full coverage. We'd have to do that if we took out a $5k loan, but we'd be able to pay that off in a matter of months, not over the course of a year.

Am I insane? I really don't understand where her coworkers are coming from....


Also, what do you think of a 2008 Pontiac G8 with 92k miles at $16k? It's very well equipped, but I'm really not interested in any car with 92k miles at $16k.

There was also a 2005 Cadillac (can't remember what kind, but it was a big car) with 100k miles at $10k. It is just as well equipped as the G8, with an additional 8K miles but it costs $6k less. I'm not thrilled with the gas mileage, but we could buy it outright. Is it a good deal?

 

[Samson]

We've started looking at cars here in town, mostly at dealerships. I had planned on buying any car $10k and under outright but I'd be willing to finance up to $5k. My wife's co-workers (at least two of them) told her it was a crazy-bad idea to buy a used car outright. They claim it's a bad decision to just give them a wad of cash because they claim you should just get a bank loan and make payments and that the $10k in the bank can continue building interest.

I think that's insane because I am quite certain our bank will not pay us higher interest on ~$10k in interest than they will charge on in interest on a $10k to $12k loan. Plus, with a loan, we'd have to pay higher insurance for full coverage. We'd have to do that if we took out a $5k loan, but we'd be able to pay that off in a matter of months, not over the course of a year.

Am I insane? I really don't understand where her coworkers are coming from....


Also, what do you think of a 2008 Pontiac G8 with 92k miles at $16k? It's very well equipped, but I'm really not interested in any car with 92k miles at $16k.

There was also a 2005 Cadillac (can't remember what kind, but it was a big car) with 100k miles at $10k. It is just as well equipped as the G8, with an additional 8K miles but it costs $6k less. I'm not thrilled with the gas mileage, but we could buy it outright. Is it a good deal?

WRT borrowing money, I would say you are right and your wife's co-workers are insane. You will always (?) get a worse interest rate on loans than you do on bank accounts, so spending money you have is generally preferable to borrowing money.

WRT the value of cars, I cannot comment much as I am from the wrong side of the pond, but the way I tend to get an idea of these things is to check ebay for completed listings, restricting to auctions is useful. Here is the link for the pontiac, it looks to me like $16k is too high.

 

[peter grimes]

I have a bad impression about the quality of General Motors cars in the 2000s. Not at all sure if my impression reflects reality, though.