Dear auto manufacturers.....[rant]

RudyP said:
Older Ferraris have an incredibly loud and annoying constant tone beep when the driver's door is open with the ignition on.. So annoying and worse than most modern cars.
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But it makes up for it with that beautiful engine note once you’ve got it running!
 
I had a '70 Chevy pickup that had a weird problem that I fought for years. It only happened at night if it was raining.

I would start it up, turn on the headlights and start driving. When I turned on the windshield wipers, the whole electrical system would shut down, and the engine would stop running. Turn off the wipers and everything is back to normal. Or sometimes turn on the wipers, and it runs as normal. (that is what taught me that if I do something that has negative consequences, undo what I did)

Like I said,I fought it for years before I found out what was wrong. The accessory wire that came from the positive cable on the battery connection went to a connection on the fender. That connection had an eyelet on the end of the wire. That eyelet was broken under the plastic insulator. So sometimes it made a connection, and sometimes it wasn't connected enough to carry the current when everything was on.

I discovered it by accident when changing the battery. I accidentally pulled on that wire and it came from together. After looking at the corrosion on the two ends, it had been broken for quite a while. I replaced the eyelet and never had that problem again.

Several years later a friend had a restored '68 Chevy pickup, and he told me about a problem it had. Sometimes it would start, then other times it would not even turn over. No headlights, no radio, nothing. Could not even jump start it off another vehicle. I went over and replaced that same eyelet and fixed his problem. After that he thought I was the most brilliant person to ever work on old Chevy trucks...:lol:
 
Half Fast said:
FIFY
;)
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Too close to home… 2 weeks ago, one of the first gen adjustable dampers failed, last week I had a check engine light due to some issue with one of the MAFs (I managed to fix both issues at home DIY!) and as of today, the oil temp gauge is intermittent. I’ve never had it outright not run but I have done more repairs on that car in 4 years of ownership than all 7 of my other cars combined over their entire lifetimes.

Owning that car is like dating a bat$hit crazy supermodel…
 
Zeldman said:
I had a '70 Chevy pickup that had a weird problem that I fought for years. It only happened at night if it was raining.

I would start it up, turn on the headlights and start driving. When I turned on the windshield wipers, the whole electrical system would shut down, and the engine would stop running. Turn off the wipers and everything is back to normal. Or sometimes turn on the wipers, and it runs as normal. (that is what taught me that if I do something that has negative consequences, undo what I did)

Like I said,I fought it for years before I found out what was wrong. The accessory wire that came from the positive cable on the battery connection went to a connection on the fender. That connection had an eyelet on the end of the wire. That eyelet was broken under the plastic insulator. So sometimes it made a connection, and sometimes it wasn't connected enough to carry the current when everything was on.

I discovered it by accident when changing the battery. I accidentally pulled on that wire and it came from together. After looking at the corrosion on the two ends, it had been broken for quite a while. I replaced the eyelet and never had that problem again.

Several years later a friend had a restored '68 Chevy pickup, and he told me about a problem it had. Sometimes it would start, then other times it would not even turn over. No headlights, no radio, nothing. Could not even jump start it off another vehicle. I went over and replaced that same eyelet and fixed his problem. After that he thought I was the most brilliant person to ever work on old Chevy trucks...:lol:
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I have a couple old chevy's...

and every time it rains....

they get rustier :(
 
2-Bit Speed said:
Clear coat over the rust and tell people it's intentional?
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I mean, maybe...

IMG_20230129_091447436.jpg

On the bright side it only took 170k and 25 years to get my first CEL:

IMG_20230127_154116698_HDR.jpg
 
Jim K said:
On the bright side it only took 170k and 25 years to get my first CEL:
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With the age and miles it could be anything from a bad air flow sensor to a vacuum hose cracked and sucking air to the thermostat stuck open.

I was driving from east Texas to western New Mexico in my '93 GMC and drove straight into the face of a cold front. The outside air temp dropped from lower 80s to upper 30s in 20 miles. And turned the CEL on.

I noticed the coolant temp was about a needle width lower than normal, so I stopped and checked the coolant level, which was good. So I put a towel in front of the grill, and the coolant temp went back to normal and the CEL turned off.
 
cowman said:
Unless there is an imminent danger NOTHING should beep/bong or buzz at me while I'm driving.

The cameras that provide pre-collision assist being dirty is not an emergency. Someone having an unbuckled seatbelt(or my dog being heavy enough to trip the seat sensor) is NOT an audio alert worthy problem. Who thought up that one? Oh hey someone is unbuckled seems like a good time to distract the driver! Brilliant! Farmers who routinely drive their pickups through a field or around a farmyard where they're driving low speed and hopping out frequently just LOVE this feature btw(yes I know how to disable it, I'm just lazy and ranting here)

Oh and the "pre-collision assist" warning message when a dirty camera *thinks* I'm going to hit something could be urgent but probably not the right time to ding at me and take my attention off the road. Also supposedly this thing can apply the brakes on it's own which now is worrying me since it has popped up that warning a few times now while nothing is in front of the car and there's no danger of hitting anything.

I'm going to go hop back in one of my 70s beasts now. Everything rattles and the gas mileage is horrible but at least they don't beep at me or do anything on their own.

/rant
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Congress and trial lawyers thought up most of 'em. Don't blame the carmakers; they'd rather not spend the money, either.
 
Jim K said:
I have a couple old chevy's...

and every time it rains....

they get rustier :(
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I remember attempting to sand all the rust off my old Chevy. Ended up with nothing but a frame ... :D
 
I had to... I mean a friend of mine had to drive a Honda Odyssey minivan around town (long story) and the thing sounded off an air raid siren every time I would change lanes. It scared the hell out of me* at first until I* was told it was a 'lane excursion detector.' I had to turn it off. It was super annoying.

*I mean my friend. I refuse to be seen driving a minivan.
 
Sac Arrow said:
I had to... I mean a friend of mine had to drive a Honda Odyssey minivan around town (long story) and the thing sounded off an air raid siren every time I would change lanes. It scared the hell out of me* at first until I* was told it was a 'lane excursion detector.' I had to turn it off. It was super annoying.

*I mean my friend. I refuse to be seen driving a minivan.
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It still alerted you when you were using your blinkers? Or are you one of those, I mean your friend, one of those no blinker kind of guys? I've never seen one of these that alerted if the blinker was on.
 
jesse said:
It still alerted you when you were using your blinkers? Or are you one of those, I mean your friend, one of those no blinker kind of guys? I've never seen one of these that alerted if the blinker was on.
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jesse said:
It still alerted you when you were using your blinkers? Or are you one of those, I mean your friend, one of those no blinker kind of guys? I've never seen one of these that alerted if the blinker was on.
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I'm going to say yes, because I do use my blinkers.
 
Daleandee said:
The pics seems to indicate a right turn signal being applied (pushing upward), yet the outside shows the front left signal coming on. Must be a Chevrolet ... :D
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Must be a British car, wrong side of the road, all that.
 
Somebody told me the reason they drink warm beer over in England is because Lucas built the refrigerators.

I still miss my old TR-3..:)

My wife's 2015 LaCrosse warns you not to read the screen while driving...it posts this message on the screen while you are driving.
 
It didn't help that the British standard was a Positive ground.

And that some cars, when the converted from 6 volt systems to 12 volt, just added another 6 volt battery in series.
 
Pinecone said:
It didn't help that the British standard was a Positive ground.
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Always exciting when jump starting from a negative ground car, back when the bumpers where metal and someone pulled up a little too close...
 
Pinecone said:
It didn't help that the British standard was a Positive ground.
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Just goes to show the Brits will do everything backwards just to be different from everyone else. :p

My dad has an old Brit made Leyland tractor we used around the old acreage. It was also Positive ground, with a big warning label on the dash to remind you. Dad finally converted it several years ago when generator died.
 
Pinecone said:
It didn't help that the British standard was a Positive ground.
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36 Ford was the same. My Dad put a new coil on one day and forgot about the positive ground. It did not take long to melt the new coil onto the engine.
 
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