Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

gaasc said:
You can't go wrong with an E36
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Reaaaallly? Have you heard of something called VANOS? or maybe the shoddy OEM control arms that allow the whole wheel to move forward/backward by a few inches?

There are a lot of things that can go wrong with a E36.
 
weren't those problems M3 only?
 
_HighVoltage_ said:
Reaaaallly? Have you heard of something called VANOS? or maybe the shoddy OEM control arms that allow the whole wheel to move forward/backward by a few inches?

There are a lot of things that can go wrong with a E36.
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The VANOS problem is my main point of concern right now since that car is in the average mileage range where it fails out.
 
A fellow XTerra owner posted this video of him driving through "a little water on the road." Apparently they closed the road right after he went through.


He said that the water was almost to the top of the doors. This is how to ford water, keep your speed constant, form a bow wave and don't overpower it.
 
Spectre said:
Try that in a tiny ecocrapbox. :D I'm guessing it wouldn't end well.
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This is down to driver skill and the ride height of the vehicle more so than anything else. You could jack a Prius to brodowser height and it will run through that puddle just as well.
 
Exactly. Take away the driver skill or the vehicle and you have a stranded vehicle in the middle of what most people would call a lake. All the skill in the world won't get a Prius through that water - and it's simply not possible to lift a Prius that high even if you wanted to.
 
Blind_Io said:
and it's simply not possible to lift a Prius that high even if you wanted to.
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Remember, we are on the Internet - Anything is possible! :)
 
I just got to drive a 1983 911SC down a maintain road!

Very nice car, but I didn't like the pedals or the tires. No grip, and the transmission was like a truck. I kept missing 2nd gear because it was waaaaay down there.

But otherwise a very nice car.
 
confession time:

I've just done my first driving in France and I liked it. What I did was drive a rented C-class with about 12000 km on the clock that wasn't on my credit card or signature - i.e. a car that you really don't want to dent - through Lyon and from there to downtown Grenoble and back. The system they seem to have here is "be quick, barge in, look out for yourself and don't crash into anything that's nicer than your own car" and for just one day, it was hugely better than what I usually see in rural Germany where everyone seems to have a decade before he needs to be wherever he pretends to be going.
 
Blind_Io said:
A fellow XTerra owner posted this video of him driving through "a little water on the road." Apparently they closed the road right after he went through.

*Wet feet*

He said that the water was almost to the top of the doors. This is how to ford water, keep your speed constant, form a bow wave and don't overpower it.
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Impressive wading, you can't do it in just anything. I'm not even sure my petrol Series would manage a distance like that just because of the ignition electrics and position of the air filter. I've been through short stretches of water deeper than that but it has never been very happy about it.
 
Irony:

Archive.org save of the Saturn website back in 1998..my car has the same transmission though.. said:
Electronically controlled "Smart" automatic transmission

Our optional "smart" automatic transmission is controlled by a computer called the powertrain control module, which contains two microprocessors. One controls the engine, the other the transmission, and they keep the two in constant communication with each other. With some 30 patents to its credit, our four-speed automatic transmission uses an elegant computer algorithm called fuzzy logic to execute ultrasmooth shifts, regardless of road or weather conditions. It's also nearly as fuel efficient as its five-speed counterpart.
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Oh really...why do I have to restart my car every few hours of driving to get the car to shift out of 2nd gear if I've been driving for a while huh? :p
 
rickhamilton620 said:
Oh really...why do I have to restart my car every few hours of driving to get the car to shift out of 2nd gear if I've been driving for a while huh? :p
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It doesn't say anything about being reliable.

They used the same kind of thing in the GM 4L80E in my XJR. Only difference is that Jaguar weren't quite as cheap a set of bastards as GM was and the transmission controller is a separate box. If the TCU fails, the whole car doesn't spaz out and die. Most of the GM RWD electronically controlled autos use a similar scheme, but the RWD powertrain controllers seem to do a lot better. My guess is they weren't built down to the same low price as the Failturn's and other small Fail Wheel Drivers. :p

Also, the reason there was a 4 speed in it? GM didn't know how to build a 5 speed auto. Their first 5 speed auto would come six years later - as the 5L40E/5L50E in the 2004 Cadillacs. It's borrowed from BMW and is also a pile of fail.
 
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Spectre said:
It doesn't say anything about being reliable.

They used the same kind of thing in the GM 4L80E in my XJR. Only difference is that Jaguar weren't quite as cheap a set of bastards as GM was and the transmission controller is a separate box. If the TCU fails, the whole car doesn't spaz out and die. Most of the GM RWD electronically controlled autos use a similar scheme, but the RWD powertrain controllers seem to do a lot better. My guess is they weren't built down to the same low price as the Failturn's and other small Fail Wheel Drivers. :p

Also, the reason there was a 4 speed in it? GM didn't know how to build a 5 speed auto. Their first 5 speed auto would come six years later - as the 5L40E/5L50E in the 2004 Cadillacs. It's borrowed from BMW and is also a pile of fail.
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Ha! yeah it was probably built down to a price, much like the rest of the car. IIRC the traction control and ABS system in the S-Series is also a "low-cost" design over the more expensive systems in other GM vehicles of the time. I will say that most of the time the shifts the transmission does execute are indeed "ultrasmooth" in nature. I've gotten very used to being able to shift into neutral and quickly flick the key back one notch and restart the engine at lights to reset the PCM though! :p

At least the A/C works still...I'm actually quite impressed that it, along with the windows and locks all still function, esp. for such an old car....
 
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Hbriz said:
FTFY :p
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I was tempted to say the same thing, it just didn't look right. Now I look more closely I can see the jaggy edges around the wheel arches. :roll:

Still, an alcohol fuelled monster Prius would be awesome in every possible way.
 
rickhamilton620 said:
Ha! yeah it was probably built down to a price, much like the rest of the car. IIRC the traction control and ABS system in the S-Series is also a "low-cost" design over the more expensive systems in other GM vehicles of the time. I will say that most of the time the shifts the transmission does execute are indeed "ultrasmooth" in nature. I've gotten very used to being able to shift into neutral and quickly flick the key back one notch and restart the engine at lights to reset the PCM though! :p

At least the A/C works still...I'm actually quite impressed that it, along with the windows and locks all still function, esp. for such an old car....
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Heh... about those ultrasmooth shifts.... do you know how those are accomplished? And do you know what the consequences are?

(This should be amusing.)
 
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