Vehicle Maintenace General

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Sperg_rancher said:
I'm gonna give up some of my power level here: My academic career was focused on electrical physics.
EMPs are EXTREMELY short range, impractical devices. It's more effective to use a bomb 10 times outta 10.
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I'm curious about EMPs, I've never really worried/obsessed about them like some people do because it's not likely anyone would waste a nuke or some other expensive weapon on where I live.

To me it seems an EMP weapon's mechanism of action doesn't seem like it would affect small devices, or even cars, unless they were very close to ground zero because the inverse square law applies to that pulse. My understanding is that you have to induce enough voltage or current to damage components and even though there is a lot of wire in a car most of it isn't continuous so it makes a poor antenna or inductor. In a small standalone device the magnitude of the pulse would have to be absolutely massive to induce any harmful level of voltage across the tiny components, traces, antennas... Thinking of an old or basic car, the electronics seem to me to be pretty robust. An ECU is designed with over and under voltage tolerance, noise suppression, flyback suppression, etc in mind. It fires ignition coils either directly through a high current transistor or through a logic level signal to a coil's internal transistors, this is a noisy thing to do and the ECU has to be able to tolerate that reliably. I couldn't see an ECU failing because of anything short of an extremely strong EMP. A body control module or climate control module may be less robust, but if anything I would guess that the front end of the radio receiver might get damaged and not much else. I've never seen any actual experiments to prove or disprove how dangerous anything not relating to the power grid. Maybe that's because it's prohibitive to do so.

I'd be willing to bet that if you had any car that's old and basic enough that the only computer is the ECU, you'd have to be damn near at ground zero for the car to even be affected by an EMP.
 
Null said:
Not strictly repair, but what diesel EMP-proof trucks are out there? What years and models are you looking for if you want a truck that'll work on biofuel after all computers are annihilated by an act of god?
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I am sure there are other combos out there but I can only speak of one from personal experiance.

1989-1993 Dodge with a Cummins diesel. With a manual trans or the A727 automatic. The 727 was designed in the 1960s and doesn't use electronics.
The cummins back then where all mechanical and actually only need electricity to power the stop solenoid to turn the engine off. If there is no voltage you have to get out and manually push the stop lever on the injection pump to kill the engine.

On 4w4 models the transfer case is complely manual and the hubs are manual. The power brake booster is powered by a mechanical vacuum pump on the engine.

On the body everything like the turn signals, HVAC and wipers is all old school switches and relays because Chrysler was to broke to update the truck chassis from 1979 to 1993. And that's why they ended up with Cummins diesels in their trucks, they couldn't build their own in-hosue like Ford and GM where.

If you actually find one in good shape your going to pay bigly. They are saught after trucks now and where only made for a few years. 1.jpg

"Get an EMP proof truck" was common meme on old forums and books back in the day. And back then not that big of a deal. But today, realistically anything you find thats EMP proof is going to be old as fuck and in to Classic Car territory. Even a low millage cream puff your going to be dealing with suspension bushings that are falling apart from age. Hoses, belts, shocks. Anything with a seal in it like the axles and brake callipers etc. All that stuff is going to be 30+ years old.

And think about if the EMP really did go off... Do you really want to venture out there? The roads are all going to be blocked with abandoned cars. And your big rumbly diesel being the only running thing in existance is going to be a massive heat seeker for every single zombie out there.
 
Jump said:
"Get an EMP proof truck" was common meme on old forums and books back in the day. And back then not that big of a deal. But today, realistically anything you find thats EMP proof is going to be old as fuck and in to Classic Car territory. Even a low millage cream puff your going to be dealing with suspension bushings that are falling apart from age. Hoses, belts, shocks. Anything with a seal in it like the axles and brake callipers etc. All that stuff is going to be 30+ years old.
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Also it'll go through fuel like a mad cunt. In case of the much awaited happening, fuel is going to be on short supply and fast with no reliable replenishment in sight. You're realistically going to want something more fuel efficient to use if possible and relegate the SHTF Truck™ to special duty, stretching the gallon 3-4-5x further matters a lot when you can't just roll up to a station for a refill and your biofuel corner in the garage only squeezes out so much juice in a month.
 
MarvinTheParanoidAndroid said:
Who makes for the best mechanic Youtubers? I only know of Scotty Kilmer. His advice seems sound but his videos all have shitty clickbait titles and thumbnails.
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Like for concepts?
is OK buy tends to be heavily on the soy side so you gotta take what he says with a grain of salt because he's not above fudging the numbers or taking sketch ass sponsorships (wanna spend $500 to get your oil checked to learn it is indeed oil, don't forget my referral code!) But he tends to show the work so even when he is fudging the numbers to favor his point if your IQ is above room temp you should be able to see the honest conclusion
Seems to be very smart and breaks down concepts well enough to learn well from, haven't seen him do anything sketch either.

[I'll add more as I think of them]

Or for specific models? Cause I just use whatever video comes up for the task I'm doing on the vehicle/specific system and skip em if they are DEI or I see some retarded shit.
 
MarvinTheParanoidAndroid said:
Who makes for the best mechanic Youtubers? I only know of Scotty Kilmer. His advice seems sound but his videos all have shitty clickbait titles and thumbnails.
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South Main Auto is a chill channel to watch. Guy owns his own shop in NY and works on anything and everything. He'll do some deep dives with diagnostics but not to insane lengths.
Pine Hollow Auto Diagnostics is an extreme autist and does some amazing work. He breaks out the oscilloscope and really in a league of his own for electrical diagnosis. Can track down some issues that most mechanics will throw their hands up. It's always amazing to watch an expert working within their wheelhouse.
 
MarvinTheParanoidAndroid said:
Who makes for the best mechanic Youtubers? I only know of Scotty Kilmer. His advice seems sound but his videos all have shitty clickbait titles and thumbnails.
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I Do Cars is very niche as it's engine teardowns and only engine teardowns (aside from the occasional off-topic video about project cars or running the salvage yard), but it's really really good for what it is. Pretty useful for learning how engines tick and what makes them shit themselves and how, and surprisingly entertaining as well.
 
MarvinTheParanoidAndroid said:
Who makes for the best mechanic Youtubers? I only know of Scotty Kilmer. His advice seems sound but his videos all have shitty clickbait titles and thumbnails.
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I like Alex the Car Doctor. I've never seen a mechanic with such a chill personality.


I only know of Scotty Kilmer. His advice seems sound but his videos all have shitty clickbait titles and thumbnails.
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Take Scotty's advice with a grain of salt. Most of it is hearsay or based on car issues he saw in the early 2000's.
 
@MarvinTheParanoidAndroid there's no video that can make you a good mechanic. You just gotta wrench it to earn it. Talk to people IRL to better understand all the systems at play for your vehicle. Some of scottie's advice is dubious, a gallon of lacquer thinner in the gas tank may work to clear a cat in a '95 ranger (or whatever the car was in that vid), but I sure as shit ain't trying it in a '25 ranger. The reason I say that is because I have experience with tracking down a finicky sensor, and it ain't fun.
 
I feel like I'm one of the last persons on the internet that has a daily drive car with a carburetor still. Cleaning the jets and re-adjusting them is a pain in the ass, but I love their simplicity and how cheap their spares are.
 
BatterHomes&Gardens said:
Correct.

If its slow to fill with such little vacuum you can shut off the high side AC valve on the gauges, start the car and turn the AC on. Use the AC compressor in the car to suck the refrigerant into the system. Work smarter not harder.
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My point was that is not a sufficient vacuum to properly dehydrate or degas the system, and you will be better off getting a proper vacuum pump and micron gauge especially considering how cheap they are currently.
 
So I need cruise control, but apparently audiovox no long makes the ccs100 cruise control kits for analog cruise control. I see the rostra 250-3593 (with kit) and $400 for cruise control has me oy veying a bit considering that's a pretty good fraction of what I paid for this car to begin with. Do I have better options?
Inb4 junkyard, this car is a mess of ill advised mods and deletes, like the ship of thesus built from the non-contiguous regions of antiquity. approximately no sane path from oem parts exist
 
I work quite a bit on car security systems ask me anything and I will reply to the best of my ability.

As far as reliability I find almost anything made in Europe after 2005 terrible, chrylser family terrible after 2000 terrible and GM hit or miss. Toyota and Honda and the under-brands like Lexus and Acura go 350K miles when well maintained. I am a Ford fan not as reliable as Toyota but I just don't like Toyota's no soul, just boring unless you want to spend 100K on the Supra. The Nissan family CVT transmission is a money pit.

I am disgusted the level of equipment to service any car made after around 2015. minimum $700 worth of diagnostic equipment is required to simply pair a basic modular component. Now if this were a part considered a security issue like Benz considers the transmission, the steering lock module and obviously key ignition system, I would understand but the fact they made these items intentionally non-plug and play or once used now non-pairable to another car, disgusting. If you are good with electronics you can extract data from a broken module and upload it into a used or new module requiring no diagnostic equipment to pair your replacement module. I do this at least 5 times a month because certain cars security syetems were never designed to be serviced. BMW/Benz/ and some VW/Audi have keys already stored into the system, waiting to be programmed thosuands of miles away from the vehicles and shipped to the dealership.
 
On the subject of cars, these "I run a diesel engine on waste oil" 'hacks'- This has to be terrible for the engine long term, right? Like it has to be absolutely fouling the cylinder head with nasty carbon, right? Or is it perfectly fine as long as you don't have any large particulate?
 
Sperg_rancher said:
On the subject of cars, these "I run a diesel engine on waste oil" 'hacks'- This has to be terrible for the engine long term, right? Like it has to be absolutely fouling the cylinder head with nasty carbon, right? Or is it perfectly fine as long as you don't have any large particulate?
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My understanding is that as long as the waste oil is properly treated and filtered, it's no worse than store bought diesel.
That being said, I wouldn't use it with a modern diesel engine that's saddled with the latest globohomo tech such as a DPF.

Though I wouldn't buy any vehicle equipped with a DPF, because they cause more problems than they solve and cost a fortune to replace when (not if) they eventually fuck up.
 
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