Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

Fuck freaking voice control touch screen shit in cars.

If you have voice control that works, its awesome. The honda system works awesomely...I just wish i could tell it poi's instead of typing them in. I can only say streets, numbers, cities, cd number, track number, fan speed, driver side temperature, passenger side temperature, poi-icon category, and probably a whole bunch of other stuff. the best part: it actually works. except with spanish words.
 
A righteous PITA is my understanding - the SL1's are cable actuated (like the brakes on a bicycle), which means there are tensions that need to be right, blah blah blah.
 
A righteous PITA is my understanding - the SL1's are cable actuated (like the brakes on a bicycle), which means there are tensions that need to be right, blah blah blah.

ya thats what i was afraid of. I scoured ebay motors a few months back and noticed some of them had the cables attached. Didn't realize that the cables could potentially be under tension. I figured i'd be able to simply unhook my cable and hook it to the new unit, guess not. I'll have to do more research into it. :) Thanks!
 
I just drove to Helsinki, and at this hour (around midnight) there's not a lot of traffic on the highways. Whilst I kept my speed very reasonable, I had a nice automotive moment on the slushy highway: it was quite dark except for the glow from the light poles; there was nobody in sight except for salt trucks; the road surface was lightly covered in slushy brown snow so there weren't a lot of tire tracks and the only sounds were the buzz from the engine at 4000 rpm, the slush hitting the underbody and Before and After Science by Brian Eno in the stereo, namely the gentler, more ambient tracks like By This River. I had my headlights down and just cruised on DRL:s, and I felt like I was the only person on Earth.
 
I wonder how easy it is to swap HVAC controls? I'm sick of my front defroster being inoperable due to the air direction slider breaking off. :(:hmm:

A righteous PITA is my understanding - the SL1's are cable actuated (like the brakes on a bicycle), which means there are tensions that need to be right, blah blah blah.

ya thats what i was afraid of. I scoured ebay motors a few months back and noticed some of them had the cables attached. Didn't realize that the cables could potentially be under tension. I figured i'd be able to simply unhook my cable and hook it to the new unit, guess not. I'll have to do more research into it. :) Thanks!

This would be one of the reasons to get a car with automatic climate controls - I've had to work on manual ones where everything is cable or gear operated and it's an enormous PITA. The automatic ones are all modular circuitry and maybe some vacuum servos (more often electric), therefore they are much easier to service.
 
Anyone know if there's a ready made relay harness for H5001/H5006 headlights? Or where I can buy the connectors to make my own? I'm not having success with my quick searching.
 
Anyone know if there's a ready made relay harness for H5001/H5006 headlights? Or where I can buy the connectors to make my own? I'm not having success with my quick searching.

The connectors are readily available at any Vatozone or NAPA. They fail often, especially in American cars, so they're still a common replacement part. It's the same one for the 6054's and H4, IIRC.
 
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This would be one of the reasons to get a car with automatic climate controls - I've had to work on manual ones where everything is cable or gear operated and it's an enormous PITA. The automatic ones are all modular circuitry and maybe some vacuum servos (more often electric), therefore they are much easier to service.

LOL, if only economy cars came with automatic climate control back in the early 90's ...:p My next car I get (which will probably be when i graduate) will have it though.:cool:

Looks like google came to the rescue: http://www.saturnfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146909

According to those guys, it might just be doable. I'll look into it further :p
 
LOL, if only economy cars came with automatic climate control back in the early 90's ...:p My next car I get (which will probably be when i graduate) will have it though.:cool:

Looks like google came to the rescue: http://www.saturnfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146909

According to those guys, it might just be doable. I'll look into it further :p

Nissans did. You could get auto climate control as an option even in the little Sentra and Stanza. How do I know? My Pathfinder shares its automatic climate control with the B12 Sentra aka Sunny (85-90), as well as the switchgear.

If memory serves, you could also get the 80s Corolla with auto climate control in at least one configuration as well as the 89-up Honda Civic. Even the truly terrible 93-up Hyundai Excel could be had with climate control.

It's not about "economy cars not having it" because they were standard or optional on many of them as far back as the 80s, but "GM screwing the execution as usual, not offering the features people want, then wondering why nobody wants to buy their cars."
 
A little question for finnish members.. I got a quote from a dealer (got a free helsinki-stockholm cruise for asking the quote) for trading my -98 mondeo 1.8 CLX with AC and 319,000km on the clock to 2004 Alfa Romeo 156
1.8-16 Super, it has 188,000km

Mondeo:
ABS, 1x Airbag, Man.AC, CD/Radio, Alloys, front power windows, full service manual to 250,000kms

Alfa:
ABS, 2x Airbag, Aut.AC, CD/radio, Alloys, front power windows 2x tyre sets, full Service manual, block heater

The question is, what would you pay for it?
And what would you get from the mondeo from the private market?
 
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That's one thing my car is a bit weird about - fully loaded in 2006, has a flip-up nav screen and a wireless key card but manual headlights and A/C.
 
That's one thing my car is a bit weird about - fully loaded in 2006, has a flip-up nav screen and a wireless key card but manual headlights and A/C.

the manual ac is a bit weird. even a base s40 in 2001 had that...but I rarely see auto headlights on many cars. Even an x5 with auto wipers didn't even have auto lights.
 
I thought auto headlights were more common than that. My sister's 2000 Suzuki Vitara has them!
 
It's not about "economy cars not having it" because they were standard or optional on many of them as far back as the 80s, but "GM screwing the execution as usual, not offering the features people want, then wondering why nobody wants to buy their cars."
A long, proud tradition at GM. I think they're still trying to get people to believe that OnStar is better than an actual nav screen.
 
That's one thing my car is a bit weird about - fully loaded in 2006, has a flip-up nav screen and a wireless key card but manual headlights and A/C.

Automatic headlights and wipers can bite me. Seriously. Lights are a switch - you turn them on once per trip. And how the hell is a computer supposed to know how well *I* can see through the windshield? Crude emulation at best. I can handle pushing a lever and twiddling a knob every few minutes, thank you.
 
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