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Post by rockkid on May 4, 2005 22:00:11 GMT -5
I do do low for “that hill” in the winter but in summer ride it no brake no gas. He did paper the rotor, said there was a light wisp of rust on ‘em. Still squawking though. You’re right it’s not hideously loud but people do look once in a while.  |
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Post by ScottsyII on May 9, 2005 0:20:22 GMT -5
I find it interesting to compare the different wear rates on cars in the US and here in Australia...
It fascinates me that an "old" car in the US is generally ten years or more, because a ten year old car here is as common as mud and quite an acceptable and safe piece of machinery.
Having thought about it, however I can understand the difference... on alot of US roads there are far more testing conditions for cars than in Australia... for example, snow, salt on the road and such, and extremes of hot and cold we don't get here (it's just always warm!).
With the hotter drier climate climate here cars do seem to survive longer, although paint issues and bodywork not surviving the extreme sunlight and UV can be big problems... mechanically, however, if the cooling system is good, it will generally survive well in the warm dry climate here.
Just watch for melted and cracking plastics and faded paints... the real signs of age in Australian cars... oh and the all too common overheated car with a tiny radiator made for European conditions!
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Post by strat-0 on May 9, 2005 23:24:33 GMT -5
Yeah, it can be something of an endurance contest here, Scottsy. The breakdown on my vehicles is this: 28 yrs old: The Sleeper. 1978 Chevy Caprice chassis with a built 400 cid, cranking out the torque. Everyday driver. Scotts, I put a 4-flu radiator in it pretty quick! 46 yrs old: The Grandaddy Woof. 1960 Ford F-100 pickup with a 223 straight-six, one-lung carb. Mainly ferries supplies back and forth from the 'home fix it store' now. I've had this one for over 20 years. It will still pull out a stump, though!  10 yrs old - the Geo Prizm. Pitifully underpowered little 4-cylinder with an impossible 5-speed. That one is KayJays. Thank God I don't have to drive it very often. But it was my stepdad's, so I'm happy to have be saddled with it. |
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Post by rockkid on May 16, 2005 9:09:19 GMT -5
Wonder how a Mazda Protégée holds up in a head on?  After hitting a military bus outside of Suffield Alberta yesterday. Double fatal. |
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Post by rockkid on May 17, 2005 7:16:44 GMT -5
Oh this is sad indeed, seems today there is more story behind that photo.
CALGARY -- It's a tragedy almost too horrible to imagine: a young couple - expecting their first child - killed in a traffic collision after visiting a site where a family member perished in a similar crash.
Northeast Calgary residents Jeremy and Maria Fisher, both 28, had just finished their Cochrane ice cream cones Sunday afternoon and were on their way back from visiting the site where Jeremy's brother, Andrew Fisher, was killed in a 2001 auto collision.
With Jeremy behind the wheel of the couple's 2002 Mazda Protege eastbound on Highway 1A, about eight kilometres west of Cochrane, the car inexplicably veered into the oncoming lane and hit head-on a British military bus travelling to CFB Suffield. Jeremy and Maria - who was seven weeks pregnant - were both killed instantly.
Maria's brother, John Ferrise, said the couple were just out for a lazy Sunday -- ice cream in Cochrane, then a visit to the site where Jeremy's brother and five other teens were killed in a 2001 collision.
The distance between the two collisions was less than five kilometres on the same stretch of road.
"They would often go and visit that site," said Ferrise. "I'm sure that's what they were doing on Sunday."
I think ironic is an understatement.
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Post by ScottsyII on May 25, 2005 2:59:06 GMT -5
Made an odd discovery about my little beast tonight. Was wondering why in fucks name the thing switched on it's airconditioning when I hit reverse...
Low and behold my local sparky explained that since so many careless owners never ran their compressor during the winter time, Nissan built in a switch that turns on the compressor when in reverse, to ensure the compressor gets a short run and the seals in the pressurised mechanism remain intact...
Now I know this is a fairly basic "idiot proofing" strategy, but I'm wondering what other kinds of little quibbles people have found like this in their cars... whether it be those darn automatic upshifts in cars with a manual mode on their auto gearbox to stop people revving out their engine, or those new doodads that Toyota fits to their braking systems to compensate for weak pedal pressure in heavy braking situations...
I'm fascinated with how the motor industry is gradually usurping functions we used to perfrom as drivers... even stuff like windscreen wipers and headlights becoming automatic in some high end luxury models... for some reason this stuff doesn't gel with me! Damnit i control the car! It's mine to command! lol!
So, come forward with your quirky "manufacturer nanny" features... the stanger and more intricate the discovery, the better! :-)
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Post by strat-0 on May 25, 2005 21:03:55 GMT -5
I know what you mean, Scottsy. Some of the automatic things are nice, but it can be taken too far! On the Model T, you even had to set the timing advance and fuel mixture manually with dashboard controls - that's a little more than I want to attend to! My old truck has a manual choke that comes in handy for adjusting the idle as needed for different conditions. The computer does all that for you now - no fun!
Many new cars now have vehicle speed governors and rev limiters built into the PCM (Powertrain Control Module - the computer, for those who are unfamiliar). High end models often have Traction Control that applies brakes to wheels that break loose under acceleration. Just what I want! That would make it kinda hard to power slide, eh? You can turn it off on most performance models, though.
The trend is towards "drive by wire" systems, already common in some areas like the throttle. When you press the gas pedal, you don't operate a linkage to the fuel system anymore; the pedal works a potentiometer that send a signal to the PCM that you want to accelerate, which then operates a stepper motor that opens the throttle plate. The PCM also tells the fuel injectors to stay on longer to send more fuel. Drive-by-wire steering and braking systems are in the works too. So you don't really steer the car, it's like the drive-by-wire throttle system, with sensors, pots, and motors that turn the wheels. Road feel? Obsolete. Well, some probably said that about power steering, but you can still feel the resistance even with the hydraulic assist.
And I'd really rather turn on the windshield wipers myself. Sometimes a few drops are better than streaking a lot of fresh road grime all over the glass. Ah, but your automatic windshield washer should take care of that!
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Post by stratman19 on May 25, 2005 22:08:14 GMT -5
Well count me in in the "old school" camp. I realize that technology and progress march on, I realize that automotive advancements have overwhelmingly been for the better, but they have also largely taken shade tree mechanics like myself out of the game...oh sure, one can still do a brake job (provided the rotors/drums don't need turning), and still change plugs and shit (oil/filter changes, etc.), but I miss points and condensers, carburetors and manual chokes! Yeah, I'm a dinosaur alright! ;D
On the "fly by wire" issue...hell, our fire apparatus are even "throttle by wire" now. Our newest rig even has a computer that controls the pump panel! I miss having human control over many of these things...
As for power steering, it does take road feel away. I'm old enough to remember driving cars without it, but I'm not ready to go back to those days! Power steering at least allows for some semblance of road feel.
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Post by RocDoc on May 26, 2005 19:11:22 GMT -5
'Power assist' is what I had on my late lamented '89 Volvo Turbo 740 and, my god, that car had a great sure feel for the road...I miss her! *SOB!*~ Holy shit what a horrible story there in Alberta, 'Kid! All you can do is wonder WTF force drew their fucking car into that bus....or was it as simple as a broken tie rod at the WAY wrong moment...man! Talk about having your good luck completely desert you at the wrong time...  |
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Post by strat-0 on Jun 6, 2005 19:27:53 GMT -5
Just returned from a trip up to Missouri to visit some of KayJay's family. This is up in the foothills of the Ozarks in hillbilly country. A lot of 2-lane highway and small towns. There is no interstate from here to Memphis, and no interstate from Memphis to Houston, MO. Sure is pretty country up there, though. We took the aforementioned underpowered Geo Prizm, to save on gas, and it did pretty well. All that gear shifting and coaxing - seems like whipping a mule, though. Next time, I'm taking the Sleeper, high gas prices or not. There were several times on those 2-lanes when I wished I had the torque and horsepower of that built 400. You can't get around a slow vehicle fast in that poor little Geo. Not to mention the beefed up suspension in the Sleeper, for those hills and curves. Live and learn. Truth is, I need to do the rear brakes on it and I didn't want to take it up there like that. Turns out the hills weren't that steep - not like a trip through the Appalachians through Tennessee and North Carolina. You better have all your brakes in good working order when you drive through there, with those 8% and steeper grades on those highways. Nice to be home again.  |
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Post by ScottsyII on Jun 10, 2005 8:04:30 GMT -5
Mellie will tell ya how much she loves hills and motoring... when she was here last April we took a drive through the Adelaide Hills, not the tallest mountains in the world,but there are so reasonably steep gradients, and sheer corners, with narrow old horse and cart tracks turned into bitumen roads... makes for some interesting and oddly (for me anyways) fun driving... Gotta admit, my little cars chassis did come into it's own in those conditions. For a relatively convential suspension design on a small hatch, my little baby cut through the corners nicely, kept a good line and generally felt pretty solid grip wise. They did the chassis engineering job darn well.
Just could have used a little more oomph from the engine for the climbing sections... but hey, she did alright for a 1.6 with single point injection. A fun little drive she can be though... oh yeah, and she had a fresh set of pads on the front discs and the rear drums got overhauled last year, so braking wasn't a prob either.
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Post by ScottsyII on Jun 10, 2005 8:08:47 GMT -5
Oh and just to clarify... Mellie can't stand those sheer drop offs at the verges of the roads, and corners were no fun for her... and I promise I wasn't drivng aggressively or anything... i don't do that! She just didn't like how crude the roads were and how thin they were with such a long drop off at the edge... I can really understand her point too. Our transport department's policy of turning old cart tracks into hills roads was a shocker, and one we are still paying for today in fatalities...
Nevermind for them now it's all about speed... not proper infrastructure... pity our roads are dangerous at even the lowest speeds they set, due to poor design and maintenance...
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Post by mellie on Jun 10, 2005 10:30:22 GMT -5
Thanks for the reminder babe. |
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Post by ScottsyII on Jun 10, 2005 10:44:16 GMT -5
Oops! Didn't mean to drag up bad memories! Sowwy! Wuv got ya there and back safely though! She's a good car, and if I dare say so, her captain does endeavour to look after you well in transit... :-)
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Post by RocDoc on Jun 10, 2005 19:06:31 GMT -5
We just got back from 5 days, serious driving days in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho...and if you wanna see some sheeeer effing cliffs with a road pretty near just stapled onto their ledges, this is the place!
Lotsa those little white crosses erected at some insane blind turns you're going into.
And the 'Look For Falling Rock' signs have got to be a joke.
There's room on the roads, but my god, you DO need nerves of steel trying to stay in your lane when you're doing 50-60-70 in traffic, oh like 500 feet (often MUCH more) up from the nearest solid land, with or without a friggin guardrail...
And we rented a new-ish Buick LeSabre which handled it all very nicely.
4 adults, a baby and a shitload of baggage(incl his car seat and stroller)...plus we HAD XM and didn't even realize it til the final day!
We actually were going to squeeze in the 'large car'-category, Pontiac Bonneville for the going rate 32 bucks a day cos the next category 'Premium' jumps to like 52 bucks...but then I remembered a friend using Priceline for hotels or something.
I bid $32 and they come back with a $39 counteroffer, which was just fine with our budget. Great deal and great car which we beat the shit out of...probably decreased the life of the brakes by 80% while coming down fro the mountains into Jackson Hole Wyoming...I mean I had it in 2nd, but the thing still kept accelerating like crazy...
Then the old lady in front of our car threw hers into reverse...nice little panic stop there!
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